About the project
The mid-infrared wavelength range is a new frontier for integrated photonics with a huge potential for the realisation of compact and efficient sensors for point of care diagnostics in healthcare, detection of green house gases or toxins in food, for monitoring air quality, or industrial process control, to mention a few.
A key challenge for Silicon Photonics circuits operating at mid-infrared wavelengths is how to integrate detectors with large sensitivity/detectivity at longer wavelengths. This project addresses such an important challenge by investigating two main approaches: monolithic and hybrid integration.
In collaboration with the Photonics group from MIT, USA, mid-IR detectors suitable for gas detection will be grown directly on the silicon platform. Another approach that will be investigated is to flip-chip detectors on the silicon platform. The project would involve the design, fabrication, and testing of detectors and their integration with the silicon photonics circuits making use of the University of Southampton’s world leading cleanroom fabrication and photonic device characterisation facilities.
We are looking for an enthusiastic candidate with a background in electronics, physics or photonics. The applicant would join a cutting-edge research group in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, and work in the state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities and photonic device characterisation laboratories at the ORC. They would work in cooperation with postdoctoral researchers employed on the £5.8 million project “MISSION” (Mid- Infrared Silicon Photonic Sensors for Healthcare and Environmental Monitoring), and with six academic and six industrial collaborators.
You can find out more about the supervisors for this project at their personal pages below:
Goran: https://zepler.soton.ac.uk/people/gm1a11
Milos: https://zepler.soton.ac.uk/people/mn3m11
Anu: https://photonics.mit.edu/people/principal-investigators/anu-agarwal
