Andrew Henning

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

As part of the £5.5m EPSRC grant, ‘Next Generation Metrology Driven by Nanophotonics’ awarded to the Universities of Huddersfield and Southampton, https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/T02643X/1 , we have several PhD opportunities to offer and are interested in finding applicants with 2:1 degree or above in Physics, Mathematics, Engineering or a related discipline, and with interest in the areas of optical metamaterials/nanophotonics and optical instrumentation. 1) Metalenses for metrological applications: Lenses are a staple of optical instruments, but their size and weight are a real barrier to instrument miniaturisation. By replacing conventional lenses with metalens alternatives real progress could be made in this area. This project will create and optimise lenses suitable for use in specific real world applications and with performance closely matched to the requirements optical metrology. 2) Multi-functional metasurfaces: Metasurfaces offer exquisite control of light which can reproduce the effects of conventional optical elements e.g. a metalens will focus light in the same way as a refractive lens. However, metasurfaces need not only be designed to mimic the effect of conventional optical components. A single metasurface can change a wavefront in a manner that would normally require several optical elements e.g. lenses, filters etc., yielding compact systems requiring minimal alignment. 3) Ultra-compact metrology systems: Developed nanophotonic elements will still need to be integrated with conventional optics such as light sources, detectors and spectrometers. It will be necessary to develop the engineering know-how to enable this to happen. Once developed, ultra-compact ‘nanophotonic enabled’ instrumentation will need to be undergo performance verification and methods for calibration will also need to be created. 4) Integration of nanophotonic components: Nanophotonic elements will be used to develop a set of highly miniaturised optical probes that can be used as the front-end of an instrument. This will not only allow measurements to be taken in areas that were previously inaccessible, but the additional control provided by the nanophotonic elements will mean that the illumination and collection of the light can tailored to specific types of measurement principle.