Novel high-brightness supercontinuum sources using gas-filled hollow-core fibres

About the Project

Supercontinuum sources—light sources that have the directionality, spatial coherence, and brightness of a laser, but with an ultra-wide spectral bandwidth—have become indispensable for imaging, microscopy, spectroscopy and metrology applications in both science and industry. While such sources are well established both scientifically and commercially, they still have many limitations in terms of ultraviolet spectral extent, coherence and noise characteristics, and lifetime. In this PhD project, you will join a close collaboration with a key industry partner—a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector—to harness new techniques in nonlinear optics in gas-filled hollow fibres to develop new supercontinuum light sources with unique properties.

The project. The PhD project will be part of an industrial collaboration and operate within the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technology held by Prof. Travers. You will work on understanding novel nonlinear dynamics of ultrafast pulse propagation in gas-filled hollow-core fibres filled with specific gases, working to enhance the coherence and noise properties of ultrabroad and ultraviolet-extended supercontinuum generation. The project is expected to lead to significant technological progress and high-impact scientific publications in the areas of ultrafast and nonlinear optics. The work will be conducted in a special environment combining the academic freedom and creativity at a university with a stimulating and demanding interaction with Europe’s leading technology company.

The candidate. The successful candidate will join a diverse and motivated team of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working across a range of projects from fundamental science to industrially funded research. Candidates must have experience in experimental laboratory work and a strong grounding in the fundamentals of optics and lasers. The project will involve both heavy experimental laser work, including experimental and mechanical design. Our experiments are supported by our in-house written numerical modelling codes, so experience with programming for numerical simulations is desirable.

The group. The project will be based in the Laboratory of Ultrafast Physics and Optics (LUPO, https://lupo-lab.com) at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK) under the supervision of Prof. John Travers (https://lupo-lab.com/author/john-c.-travers/). Across three state-of-the-art ultrafast optics laboratories, the LUPO group develops and applies new laser light sources with extreme spectral and temporal properties, from compact deep-ultraviolet lasers for healthcare applications to high-power wavelength-tuneable laser pulses and extremely intense sub-cycle field transients for ultrafast science. We use a symbiotic mix of experimental work and advanced numerical simulations to push ultrafast nonlinear optics to the extreme. In close collaboration with leading research institutes and universities around the world, we use the light sources we develop to gain new insights into ultrafast dynamics in matter. The PhD project will include opportunities to join in these collaborations with other research laboratories, both in the UK and overseas.

How to apply. Interested candidates should contact Prof. John C. Travers (j.travers@hw.ac.uk) and arrange an informal call to discuss the project in more detail. Formal applications must be made through the Heriot-Watt on-line application system, https://www.hw.ac.uk/study/apply/uk/postgraduate.htm

Start date. The project will start in September or October 2025.