Current research degree projects
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
Integrated photonics has come of age, enabled by nano-fabrication technologies. We seek a talented applicant to advance the development of novel on-chip sources in the 2-micron wavelength window, coupled with integrated modulation and detection schemes.
Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) has recently emerged as a promising breakthrough technology to boost the data transmission speed of the Internet network to unprecedented levels.
Integrated photonics is key for the development of Quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPIC). Typical quantum systems are large and expensive, and thus cannot be easily scaled into products. QPICs provide a route for the realization of high performance, cost-effective and reliable quantum devices that will enable the application of quantum technologies in real-world settings. As such, QPIC technology has the potential to transform a variety of fields including information processing, communications, computation, sensing and metrology.
Space is a new but inevitable frontier for Silicon Photonics technologies. The “New Space economy” has drastically lowered satellite launch costs such that constellations of communications satellites have become a reality, and small satellites for imaging, environmental monitoring, and global positioning are proliferating. The surge in satellite traffic will demand a corresponding surge in satellite data communications capacity.Satellite based free-space optical (FSO) communications links will come online over the next few years to complement existing radio frequency links, to enhance the bandwidth, power efficiency, and security of satellite communications. All of the “Prime” aerospace contractors are in the process of demonstrating initial FSO systems, using fibre and bulk optics components. Low size, weight, and power consumption are critical for all space technologies, and especially for small satellite payloads. With Silicon Photonics whole optical systems or subsystems can be integrated onto single chips, giving huge advantages in each of these metrics, and giving resilience to vibrations.
In collaboration with a large EU consortium, we work to create a reprogrammable neuromorphic photonic platform for a variety of applications from telecommunications to biosensing. While working with us, you will benefit from state-of-the-art cleanrooms with access to silicon and silicon nitride integrated photonics platforms. You will employ the latest generation of phase change materials to create highly efficient in-memory photonic functionality with novel materials that allow the upscaling of the technology.
Materials and devices for photonic co-processors: Design and application of phase-change media for next-generation data processing.Modern society depends massively on the generation, processing and transmission of vast amounts of data: it is predicted that by 2025, 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of data will be generated around the globe. Processing such huge amounts of data demands ever increasing computational power, memory and communication bandwidth - demands that cannot be sustainably met by conventional digital electronic technologies. Indeed, CMOS-based von Neumann architectures are now approaching a widely accepted ‘efficiency-wall’ – a fundamental limit on the number of operations per unit energy, while the number of operations required continues to grow at unprecedented rates.
The focus of our group’s research is the development of user-friendly sensors or devices for affordable and rapid clinical diagnostic testing at the point-of-care (POC) of a patient, i.e., at their hospital bedside or in a care/nursing home, or in ambulance or at home.
This project combines state of the art optical fibre laser amplifiers with machine learning control to produce next-generation lasers. These “smart” phased-array lasers promise to revolutionise materials processing and other important near-term and futuristic laser applications, including even starship propulsion.