This PhD project is focussed on the development of a new class of deep ultraviolet light sources based on novel mode-locked fibre laser architectures and nonlinear optics in gas-filled hollow-core fibres. The core aim is to create compact table-top systems that generate extremely short pulses of light in the ultraviolet, with the long-term goal of using them for industrial and healthcare applications.
You will be deeply involved with the design, construction and optimisation of these light sources. This project will be primarily experimental with a significant numerical modelling component. You will learn skills experience ranging from CAD design and optomechanical construction, through to fundamental studies of the nonlinear dynamics of guided waves, the interaction of intense laser pulses with gases, and world-record level frequency conversion to the ultraviolet.
This project is embedded within a large-scale interdisciplinary team developing novel solutions to challenging healthcare problems. While the project itself is rooted in experimental physics, you will obtain wide-ranging experience and interaction with biologists, clinicians and experts in industrialisation and healthcare technology.
This project is very well funded by the EPSRC, and will make use of brand new laboratory space and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.
You will be hosted within Prof. John Travers group at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh: the laboratory of ultrafast physics and optics (LUPO). The broad goals of the group are to use nonlinear optics to create new light sources with tailored, and extreme, spectral and temporal properties. Examples include: the generation of high energy single-cycle pulses in both the ultraviolet (especially the vacuum region), and the mid-infrared; new techniques for broadband white-light supercontinuum generation; the production of ultrafast electric field waveforms called optical attosecond pulses (pulses shorter than one million billionth of a second in the visible and ultraviolet); and the design and construction of high-energy few-cycle ultrafast fibre lasers.
We use these light sources for both fundamental science (such as the physics of nonlinear optics, ultrafast light-gas interactions, new ways of driving strong-field physics, advanced spectroscopy), and for applications in healthcare, advanced manufacturing and the semiconductor industry.
Please see https://lupo-lab.com and contact Prof. John Travers ([Email Address Removed]) for further details.
How to Apply
1. Important Information before you Apply
When applying through the Heriot-Watt on-line system please ensure you provide the following information:
(a) in ‘Study Option’
You will need to select ‘Edinburgh’ and ‘Postgraduate Research’. ‘Programme’ presents you with a drop-down menu. Choose Chemistry PhD, Physics PhD, Chemical Engineering PhD, Mechanical Engineering PhD, Bio-science & Bio-Engineering PhD or Electrical PhD as appropriate and select September 2022 for study option (this can be updated at a later date if required)
(b) in ‘Research Project Information’
You will be provided with a free text box for details of your research project. Enter Title and Reference number of the project for which you are applying and also enter the potential supervisor’s name.
This information will greatly assist us in tracking your application.
Please note that once you have submitted your application, it will not be considered until you have uploaded your CV and transcripts.
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