All-optical light modulation with nonlinear metasurfaces

Overview

This is a three-year fully funded PhD studentship for an exceptional home/international student. This project will be pursued in Advanced Optics & Photonics group in the Department of Engineering at the School of Science and Technology. Nottingham Trent University has been awarded ‘University of the Year’ (Times Higher), ‘Modern University of the Year’ (Sunday Times), and received the highest possible award of ‘Gold’ in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). It is renowned for leading edge research, strong links with industry and excellent teaching facilities that help shape lives and society. Research in the School of Science and Technology is extremely strong in terms of high-quality outputs, funding income, and international impact.

You will join a cross-disciplinary project, which aims to develop novel schemes for light-matter interactions with an ultrathin array of semiconductor nanocrystals. Nonlinear photonics has been a key aspect of modern photonic technology and allows the generation of light at different frequencies via nonlinear optical materials [1-3]. Nonlinear photonics is expected to outperform and replace conventional electronics in the future. However, the nonlinear optical responses are naturally weak and limit the applications of nonlinear nanophotonics. This PhD project will develop a novel approach to realise nanostructured surfaces based on nonlinear materials to control and enhance the light-light interactions and harvest the light energy at the nanoscale. Specifically, the project will focus on applications in integrated photonic circuitries and bio/chemical sensing. All nanoparticles will be modelled, fabricated and characterised experimentally.

You will be working under the supervision of Prof. Mohsen Rahmani. Your co-supervisor will be Dr. Lei Xu.

Assessment: 9 and 18-month reports plus viva determining the progression to PhD

References

1. Rahmani, Mohsen, et al. "Nonlinear frequency conversion in optical nanoantennas and metasurfaces: materials evolution and fabrication." Opto-Electronic Advances 1.10 (2018): 180021-1.
2. Xu, Lei, et al. "Enhanced light–matter interactions in dielectric nanostructures via machine-learning approach." Advanced Photonics 2.2 (2020): 026003.
3. Xu, Lei, et al. "Enhanced four-wave mixing from multi-resonant silicon dimer-hole membrane metasurfaces." New Journal of Physics 24.3 (2022): 035002.