PhD Opportunities
Work at the forefront of global photonics and advanced materials research:
We are seeking students with a good understanding of relevant physics and (nano)materials science, and a degree in a related discipline to work with us on a variety of inter-related projects under major nanophotonics research programmes funded (to a total ~£40M) by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
You will join a strong international team of students, postdoctoral and academic staff working together on aspects of cutting-edge nanophotonics research – seeking to understand, control and utilize light and light-matter interactions at the sub-wavelengths scale. A remarkable range of new phenomena is found in this regime, with wide-ranging potential applications in, for example, telecommunications, metrology, sensing, defence, super-resolution imaging, and data storage.
Our projects are an opportunity to develop advanced skills in experimental photonics, computational electromagnetic modelling, nanofabrication, electron and optical microscopy, and applications of machine learning and AI. It is expected that students will publish a number of papers in leading academic journals and present their work at major international conferences as their research progresses.
Find out more about life as a postgraduate student at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, and the support available (including generous stipends for UK students) at www.southampton.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/photonics-optoelectronics
Projects will be supervised by a team of two senior academic/research staff within the group (see www.nanophotonics.org.uk/niz/people/).
Please direct informal enquiries to Prof. Zheludev and Dr. Plum including a copy of your CV.
Currently available PhD projects
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Picophotonics: Sub-nanometre Light–Matter Interactions, Metrology and Super-Resolution Imaging
Optical imaging and metrology techniques now routinely break the classical diffraction limit on resolution. This project will reach further still – leveraging recent advances in the subwavelength structure of light fields, metamaterials, information theory and artificial intelligence to achieve sub-nanometric (atomic scale!) optical measurement precision.
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Time Crystals: A New State of Matter for Next-Generation Data Processing
Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter with unique functionalities. This project will explore the exciting physics of time crystals and the foundations of ‘timetronics’, an information and data processing paradigm relying on the unique characteristics of this sophisticated yet esoteric state of matter.
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Metasurfaces for Machine Vision and Compact Photonics
This project will develop and demonstrate advanced bilayer metasurface optical elements addressing performance trade-offs and constraints (field of view vs. numerical aperture and efficiency; off-axis aberrations) that limit the applications potential and real-world deployment of single-layer metalenses.
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Topological Photonic Quasicrystals
Topological photonics is a rising field of research to embed topological invariants in optical materials. Such topological materials support robust light propagation protected by topology serving as important ingredients of advanced photonic technologies. Quasicrystals are an intriguing phase of solid matter that lies between the crystalline solids and amorphous materials, where they own unique symmetry characteristics enabling novel topological states. This project will explore the use of quasicrystals and/or other aperiodic materials in building unconventional topological phases.