Current research studentships
- How to apply
- For futher information contact: l.d.mclaughlin@strath.ac.uk
Current PhD Vacancies - Project Titles
- Hybrid GaN/Diamond Integrated Optics
- Visible Light Communications using Micro-pixel LED’s and Nanophosphors
- Diamond Colour-Centre Lasers: Tomorrow’s High-Performance Lasers for the Visible
- Neurophotonics: Advanced technologies for spatio-temporal control of neural circuits using optogenetics
Engineering Doctorate General
The Institute of Photonics can host Engineering Doctorate students. Whether you are an exisiting company employee or a graduate interested in an industrially relevant doctorate, this is an excellent route to doctoral status.
The IOP has links with companies keen to find good students to participate in this programme.
For more information visit the following link http://www.engd.hw.ac.uk/prospective_students_project_vacancies.html or contact Lynda McLaughlin
Research Studentships
The Institute of Photonics is always keen to recruit highly motivated and academically suitable candidates of research projects leading to a PhD qualification. Funding for such students is available from a number of sources.
Mixing the purely academic with the real world requirements of industry, the Institute's research activities focus on all-solid-state and semiconductor light sources, spanning materials, device, and system development, as well as applications work. Research is organised around four research teams, detailed below, although significant cross team working is a key feature of how we work.
- Solid-state laser engineering, led by Dr David Burns
- GaN materials, led by Dr Ian Watson
- III-V Optoelectronic Devices, led by Prof Martin Dawson
- Neuro-photonics and Applications, led by Dr Keith Mathieson
The Institute provides an excellent research environment with a suite of dedicated optical laboratories and support infrastructure. In addition the Institute has it own MOCVD growth reactor and plasma etch tool for gallium nitride research , located off-campus at the West of Scotland Science Park about 5 miles to the north-west, and is a collaborator in the Centre for Biophotonics, located on-campus, which is equipped with four state of the art multi-photon and confocal microscopes.
The Institute is a self-funded unit within the Faculty of Science, with close ties to the Department of Physics, where Professor Allister Ferguson, the Institute's Technical Director, holds the Chair of Photonics. Postgraduate students in the Institute of Photonics participate fully in the postgraduate training programme of the Department of Physics.
Formal applications for postgraduate study must be made to the University's Registry; for further information click here.
In the past year, Institute students have given presentations at international conferences in San Francisoco, Arizona, San Jose, Long Beach, Moscow and Switzerland, as well as within the UK. The local IEEE/LEOS chapter holds regular meetings in Scotland during the academic term with speakers of international renown giving presentation on a wide range of topics.
Previous students have since found employment in both large and small companies both in the UK (Agilent) and overseas (Samsung). The atmosphere within the Institute engenders close collaboration between experienced post-doctoral staff and PhD students to mutual benefit.
Opportunities exist for research studentships across all areas of the Institute's research activities. If you have an interest in postgraduate study with a strong industrial flavour in a commercially-oriented research environment, please contact us to discuss further.
PhD research projects area available in the following areas:
Solid-state Laser Engineering
The team welcomes applications on an ongoing basis from suitably-qualified individuals for projects across its areas of interest, and we encourage interested parties to get in touch for an informal visit and discussion. Currently we have two PhD students and two post-doctoral research fellows, working on a range of projects including thin-disc lasers, high-power Nd-lasers, intra-cavity laser AO and related electronics, and mid-IR laser development.
III-V Optoelectronic Devices
The team welcomes applications on an ongoing basis from suitably-qualified individuals for projects across its areas of interest, and we encourage interested parties to get in touch for an informal visit and discussion. Currently we have eight PhD students, working on projects including VECSELs, micro-LEDs, device and materials processing, novel amplifier development and characterisation. Typically, these projects are industrially sponsored, or involve close interaction with an industrial organisation, allowing the students to gain perspective both on academic research and on industrial research needs.
Applications
In projects linked with both Glasgow and Dundee Dental schools further work is underway to develop novel techniques for dental diagnosis. A range of novel optical probes are under consideration to included both the ability to take optical sections of teeth and also spectroscopic measurements to determine the health, or otherwise of the sample. In addition erosion of enamel due to acid based drinks is a growing problem and instrumentation is being developed to help quantify the effect in vivo.
In a separate but related project there is the opportunity to develop a probe suitable for obtaining multiphoton images from deep within a tissue sample. The probe will be aimed in the long term for internal diagnostics using the multiphoton technique for a range of diseases from cancer to heart disease and will integrate adaptive optics, micro-optical techniques and novel methods of ultra-short pulse compression/dispersion compensation.
Opto-genetics and neuro-photonics