This PhD project, which comes with an enhanced stipend, will focus on advancing active optical fibres design, fabrication, and material properties and developing specialised coatings to achieve excellent laser efficiency and superior beam quality, mitigate detrimental non-linear effects and transverse mode instability for power scaling of fibre lasers and amplifiers.
Are you passionate about developing novel research and keen to shape the future of fibre laser-based energy transfer technologies? The Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton is recruiting a motivated PhD candidate within the EPSRC Energy Transfer Technologies Doctoral Training Hub. The project is also co-funded by Fibercore, a leading manufacturer of specialty optical fibres in the UK.
Fibre lasers that are increasingly becoming the light sources of choice for a wide range of industrial, scientific, and directed energy applications, are driving the development of new types of fibres, each with a unique set of properties to match with the specific applications.
In this PhD project, we will advance the design, fabrication, and material properties of rare-earth (i.e., Yb, Er, Tm, and Ho) doped fibres with large-core and tailored dopant profiles that are capable of delivering excellent laser efficiency, superior beam quality, and effectively suppress the detrimental non-linear effects that can limit the output power of high-power fibre lasers (HPFLs). In addition, we will implement special fibre coatings for efficient thermal management to enhance the robustness and reliability of HPFls.
You will gain expertise in specialty optical fibre fabrication and characterisation, while expanding your knowledge in high power fibre devices. Throughout the PhD, you will access state-of-the-art fibre fabrication facilities and laboratories at the ORC and have the opportunity to work with the industrial partner.
The Energy Transfer Technologies Doctoral Training Hub specialises in developing research and training the next generation of leaders in energy transfer technologies for defence and related sectors. The successful candidate will benefit from the support and expertise of our diverse academic community, a community of students working towards similar goals, and our specialist industrial network.
A minimum of an upper Second-Class UK honours degree or its international equivalent in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Photonics, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a closely related discipline.
Funding: Fees, An enhanced stipend of £26,000 per year, along with additional funds of £7,000 per year for travel, conferences and research equipment, for a duration of four years.
The Hub is committed to improving diversity within the sector and as such we aim to provide an inclusive environment in which all students can thrive. We particularly encourage applications from women, disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates, and students from low-income/ non-typical backgrounds to apply. We can also consider part time PhD students. We encourage and support talented individuals from various STEM backgrounds with ambition and an interest in making a difference.
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