Photons and Matter – (Ph.D.)

Research in Photonics is concerned with:
* The physical processes of light/matter interactions relevant to photoelectronic devices. Work is concentrated on lowdimensional electronic structures (quantum wells and quantum dots) and subwavelength photonic structures. Device structures are supplied by industrial collaborations and by the EPSRC Central Growth facility in Sheffield. The devices are fabricated in-house specifically for these investigations. The properties of individual quantum dots, epitaxial and colloidal, are also investigated in view of their applications for sensing, quantum cryptography and quantum computing.
* The application of photonics for sensing and imaging in the biosciences, including the development and application of novel labelfree
nonlinear optical microscopy and of lable-free biosensing based on optical resonators.
* The optics, acousto-optics and transport phenomena which include hydrodynamics, with work ranging from analytical calculations to super computer simulations.


Research projects are available in:

* Experimental and computational studies of red and blue emitting lasers and LEDs.
* Vertical cavity lasers and micro-cavity devices, novel hybrid laser structures and methods of spontaneous emission control using micro-cavities.
* Quantum dot lasers: gain and recombination processes, photon mediation processes in dot ensembles.
* Fundamental carrier recombination processes in laser structures using photon counting and streak camera techniques.
* Fabrication and characterisation of advanced photonic structures with added functionality
based on dilute nitride and quantum dot materials.
* Experimental evaluation of new materials for lasers and light emitting devices.
* Femto-second nonlinear optical spectroscopy of semiconductor devices.
* Development of bio-photonic sensors using engineered photonic structures.
* Non-linear optical microscopy (second harmonic generation, coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy, multi-photon fluorescence).
* Resonant acousto-optics of semiconductors: fundamentals and applications.
* Theory of Bose-Einstein condensation in quantum wells.
* Theory of collective quasi-two-dimensional optics of weakly disordered quantum wells.

Special Features:
* Research students take specialist academic courses and courses to develop their communication and personal skills.
* There is a full programme of seminars and the individual research groups hold regular meetings where members present new results and discuss their research in detail.
* There is an annual postgraduate conference and a research student poster competition.
* There are active collaborations with research groups overseas and regular attendance at major international conferences by staff and students.