Postgraduate research opportunities High-speed, spatially multiplexed single photon emitter arrays

Generating single photons on-demand at high rates is a key resource for quantum encryption and information processing. Furthermore, scaling up these emitters to arrays of devices that emit indistinguishable photons will enable new forms of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) systems-on-a-chip. The production of on-demand photon emitters in a large spatial array requires a number of important advances on the current state-of-the-art. Firstly, nanofabrication of solid-state photon emitters, such as colour centres in diamond or semiconductor quantum dots, must be controllably manufactured with micron-scale precision. Secondly, these emitters must be integrated with a common pump source to produce time correlated emission. Finally, the output of these emitters must be efficiently coupled into waveguides or fibre optic channels to route and manipulate them in subsequent circuits or sensors.

In this project the student will make use of new methods in hybrid materials integration to combine efficient photon emitter materials with optical pump sources, timing electronics and PIC systems. This will involve the design and fabrication of PIC devices and the use of flip-chip bonding and transfer printing assembly processes in the on-site cleanroom at the University of Strathclyde. Custom toolsets have been developed in the group for these processes and the student will have full access to processing and assembly tools in the semiconductor fabrication facility. The systems will be designed to interface with on-chip waveguides and multi-core fibre geometries and will be characterised in state-of-the-art photonics laboratories. The student will therefore be part of the full technology development process, including basic design and simulation, fabrication and measurement. Crucially, as part of this work, the student will work at the interface between photonics and high-speed parallel electronics to allow deterministic spatial control of the photon emitter arrays using CMOS electronic chips co-packaged with the PIC chips.

This project is co-funded by the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics and the student will benefit from access to Fraunhofer labs, training and industrially relevant workshops and cohort activities. The student will be part of the core PIC research team at the University of Strathclyde and will have the opportunity to work with others in a collegiate and enthusiastic environment. Research findings will be published in high impact journals with the opportunity to present at an international conference. 

Institute of Photonics

The Institute of Photonics (IoP), part of the Department of Physics, is a centre of excellence in applications-oriented research at the University of Strathclyde. The Institute’s key objective is to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial applications and development in the area of photonics. The IoP is located in the £100M Technology and Innovation Centre on Strathclyde’s Glasgow city centre campus, at the heart of Glasgow’s Innovation District, where it is co-located with the UK’s first Fraunhofer Research Centre. Researchers at the IoP are active in a broad range of photonics fields under the areas of Photonic Devices, Advanced Lasers and Neurophotonics, please see our research. Strathclyde Physics is a member of SUPA, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance.

The University of Strathclyde has, in recent years, been the recipient of the following awards:

• The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in the field of Advanced Manufacturing (2021)
• Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 Scottish University of the Year
• The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education 2020 (and 2019)
• The Times Higher Education UK University of the Year 2019/2020 (and 2012/2013)
• The Times Higher Education Widening Participation Initiative of the Year 2019 and UK Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2013/2014