Nonlinear Semiconductor Photonics - PhD Projects

Headed by Professor Anna Peacock, the Nonlinear Semiconductor Photonics Group's focus is in the development of novel semiconductor waveguide platforms; from the design and characterisation stage, through to the demonstration of practical all-optical nonlinear devices. Please find our available projects below. 

All PhD projects:

• Entry Requirements: A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent). 
• Closing date: Applications are accepted throughout the year. The start date will typically be late September, but other dates are possible.
• Funding: For UK students, tuition fees and a stipend at the UKRI rate plus £2,000 ORC enhancement tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years (totalling around £21,000 for 2024/25, rising annually). EU and Horizon Europe students are eligible for scholarships. CSC students are eligible for fee waivers. Funding for other international applicants is very limited and highly competitive. Overseas students who have secured or are seeking external funding are welcome to apply.
• Apply online here. 

Supervisors: Professor Anna Peacock and Prof Radan Slavik

Semiconductor photonics is fast becoming one of the most active areas of research, offering optoelectronic solutions for a wide range of applications not only in telecoms, but also in medicine, imaging, spectroscopy, and sensing. Within this field, a subdivision that is gaining increased momentum is semiconductor nonlinear photonics as the materials display a number of important nonlinear effects that can be used to generate and process signals at ultrafast speeds. 

This research project will follow the development of semiconductor devices fabricated both from conventional planar waveguides on-chip as well as those based on an emerging platform that incorporates semiconductor materials directly into the cores of optical fibres. In particular, the semiconductor fibre platform offers a unique possibility to seamlessly link semiconductor technologies with the silica fibre infrastructures that are used to transmit light around the globe – one of the key challenges facing the mass uptake of integrated photonic chips. 

The work will have elements of: (i) waveguide design, (ii) component fabrication and optimization, as well as (iii) optical characterization and device benchmarking using both experimental and numerical tools. There will be opportunities to interact with our National and International collaborators.

Supervisors: Professor Anna Peacock, Prof David Thomson, Prof Harold Chong

Silicon materials are synonymous with the microelectronics industry and, in particular, the processors used in everyday gadgets such as mobile phones, tablets, digital radios and televisions. More recently, due to its favourable optical properties, silicon has gained popularity in the field of optical information technologies, i.e., using photons instead of electrons to transfer information.  Bringing these two research areas together on an integrated platform will have huge technological consequences. However, there is a challenge: silicon photonic devices are typically fabricated via complex processing of expensive single crystal wafers, which renders multi-device integration difficult. This project seeks to develop a simple, low-cost laser materials processing procedure to fabricate high quality polysilicon photonic platforms that will ease issues associated with optoelectronic integration. 

The work will have elements of materials deposition, device fabrication, and optical characterization of components such as couplers, resonators, and modulators. It will also be possible to extend this work to other semiconductor materials, including silicon-germanium alloys where laser processing can be used to locally control the composition to tune device performance. There will be opportunities to interact with our academic and industrial partners.