Prof J Wilkinson, Prof Senthil Ganapathy
Applications accepted all year round
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
The Optoelectronics Research Centre has a 40-year track record of pioneering contributions in photonics and is currently one of the largest and most dynamic research centres in this field world-wide. The Integrated Photonic Devices Group (http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/ipd.html) explores the fundamentals of guided wave optics at surfaces, with applications including telecommunications, biosensing and novel light sources, and is complemented by world-class photonic materials and fabrication facilities (http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/facilities.html).
The Project: There is increasing interest in low-cost photonic circuits for mass-market applications such as fibre-to-the-home. Integrated circuit technology has enabled extraordinary complexity at low cost for electronic systems and has the potential to provide a revolution in mass-manufacture for all-optical systems. For this dream to be realised, materials and fabrication processes suitable for advanced photonic applications must be devised. All-optical processing requires high third-order nonlinearity (power dependent refractive index) combined with tight confinement of light, in photonic circuits. Silicon itself has problems with nonlinear absorption in the appropriate power and wavelength regime, but heavy metal oxides, such as Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 which can be integrated with silicon, are attractive for a wide range of optical functions, especially all-optical switching and gain. In this project we will explore these materials for advanced device functionality exploiting nonlinearity and electro-optic control.
Supervision: This project will be supervised by Prof. James Wilkinson and Dr. Senthil Ganapathy
Entry requirements: first or upper second-class degree or equivalent
English language: IELTS 6.0, with a minimum of 5.5 in each component; for information on other accepted English Language tests, please visit https://www.southampton.ac.uk/admissions_language
Duration: up to 4 years (full-time)
Start date: Typically September/October (but other start dates are possible)
Applying: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/how-to-apply/postgraduate-applications.page#applying_for_a_postgraduate_research_degree
Contact: You are welcome to contact Dr. Senthil Ganapathy ([Email Address Removed]) or Prof. James Wilkinson ([Email Address Removed]) for an informal discussion. Please mention the project title and supervisors name in your application when applying online.
Funding Notes
Fully-funded places include paid tuition fees and tax-free bursary to cover the living expenses. For UK applicants, a good number of fully-funded scholarships are available.
EU applicants may also compete for a small number of fully-funded scholarships. Obtaining support from other sources (or self-funding) for living expenses will increase chances of a successful application. Please note that EU students who have been working/studying in the UK for the previous 3-years can be fully-funded as equivalent UK students.
International students are encouraged to seek full/partial funding from other sources (e.g. national scholarships, commonwealth scholarships, self-funding etc).
For further information, visit www.orc.southampton.ac.uk/phdprogram.html
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