Current research degree projects
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
This PhD project aims to open new frontiers in nanophotonics by designing and fabricating a new class of miniaturized optical sources. These sources will allow light emission in a broad frequency spectrum well beyond what is possible with current lasers. These sources will find application in several fields: from medicine, as primary components of non-invasive breath analysers for cancer diagnosis; to security, both for the detection of explosives and for the development of efficient anti-missile systems in civil aircrafts; up to environment, for the monitoring of air pollution and green energy generation.Join us to pioneer the next generation miniaturized optical sources!
We are looking for a student to join an exciting new project in the field of bio-imaging. The project, recently awarded funding of ~£5M, aims to use laser-generated soft X-ray radiation for coherent imaging of nanoscale biological structures. The X-ray generation process, known as high-harmonic generation, is based on nonlinear optics using extremely high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses, the topic of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. The imaging process uses computational algorithms to transform the scattered X-ray patterns into detailed images with resolution of 10nm or less, comparable with electron microscopes but with the huge advantages of X-rays in looking within biological structures like cells or neurons.
PhD Opportunity: Shaping the Future of Telecommunications with Hollow Core FibresAre you a graduate student in Physics/Engineering/Material Science or chemistry and want to be at the forefront of a technological revolution? If so, we invite you to join our collaborative project with Microsoft Azure Fiber at the University of Southampton.
Do you aspire to contribute to the forthcoming AI revolution? If so, join the world-leading Hollow Core Fibre group at the University of Southampton, in partnership with Microsoft Azure Fiber, and be part of a ground-breaking research project called “FASTNET”.
This exciting PhD project offers a unique opportunity to develop a high-efficiency, all-in-one in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) system for future crewed Mars missions. Your research will explore the cutting-edge potential of non-thermal plasmas for two crucial objectives:Purifying Martian water: Removing biological and chemical contaminants from water extracted from the Martian surface, enabling its safe use for astronauts.Generating essential resources: Dissociating Martian CO2 to produce oxygen and rocket fuel, eliminating the need to transport these vital supplies from Earth.Water, oxygen, and fuel are the lifeblood of any Mars mission. Due to the immense distance and travel time, transporting these necessities is simply not feasible. Enter ISRU, the key to a sustainable and independent future on Mars. This project will be built upon the University of Southampton's proven expertise in plasma technology. Our innovative plasma micro-bubble water (PMW) reactor can already remove 99.8% of chemical contaminants and achieve an 8-log reduction in biological contaminants.
In this project we will develop hollow-core optical fibres (HCFs) for mid-infrared laser delivery. HCFs offer a radically new solution for laser delivery as they guide light in a gas-filled core, instead of the glass in conventional optical fibres. HCF-based mid-infrared laser delivery systems could open exciting possibilities for diverse applications, including advanced medicine, gas sensing to protect the environment and new materials processing.
Applications are invited for multiple PhD studentships to be undertaken within the silicon photonics group at the University of Southampton. The successful applicants will join a world leading research group of more than 50 postgraduate students and researchers working on silicon photonics technologies and photonic interconnects technologies in close collaboration with academia (University of Cambridge, University College London and Cardiff University) and industrial partners. The work is linked to a 5-year multimillion pounds project funded by Industry and UKRI/EPSRC UK .
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.