(BC-34) PhD Opportunity, Development of Tuneable Laser Tech. Job in Cork City, Ireland

Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork is one of Europe's leading research centres, specialising in ICT hardware research, with ca 420 staff, students and academic & industrial visiting researchers. Tyndall undertakes internationally-leading research into information and communications technology.

Tyndall uses its facilities and expertise to support industry and academia nationally and provides large numbers of highly qualified graduate students, key to the development of Ireland’s national economy. Tyndall has over 200 industry partnerships and customers worldwide. Several start up companies in Ireland have been based on technology originating at Tyndall. The Institute’s researchers include 125 PhD and 10 Masters students, and 38 nationalities are represented within the institute at all levels, with its research published in 200 peer reviewed publications last year.

(BC-34) PhD Opportunity, Development of Tuneable Laser Tech. Job Description

The Photonics Centre at the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork invites applicants who will join established teams within the Photonic Centre, will carry out research in purpose-built photonic and microelectronic systems research facilities at Tyndall National Institute and will be involved in collaboration with other groups in Tyndall and elsewhere. Training opportunities will be provided to acquire additional experimental, circuit design and numerical research skills as appropriate.

This PhD will address the development of a tuneable laser technology with the potential for integration into a photonic integrated circuit in a manner that is compatible with mass production. We plan to achieve this using a tuneable Fabry-Perot laser that requires only a single epitaxial growth stage and uses feature sizes that can be reached with deep-UV optical lithography, which makes the laser design compatible with foundry fabrication and hence potentially low-cost. Current tuneable lasers are essentially one dimensional with in-line gain, phase and reflector elements. Additional integrated control will be obtained by using the plane of the waveguide layer to its full extent to spatially separate the different functional elements enabling them to be controlled independently. By using etched-facet technology, which is well-established at Tyndall, in combination with splitting elements, the laser can be integrated with other components such as filters, amplifiers and modulators. The active and passive functions can be separated though quantum well intermixing techniques. Centralised and shared wavelength stabilisation and control techniques will also be developed with the aim of achieving cooler-less laser operation, so that thermoelectric coolers and integrated wavelength lockers can be eliminated to further reduce cost. On completion of the PhD the student will be an expert in the design, fabrication and characterisation of advanced semiconductor photonic devices.
 
Responsibilities

• Design, development, characterisation of new laser sources. Requiring modelling of the device, mask design, clean-room techology, characterisation of the devices and analysis.
• An interest in technology and in building and testing semiconductor devices.

(BC-34) PhD Opportunity, Development of Tuneable Laser Tech. Job Requirements

Requirements

• Applications are invited from students who have, or expect to gain, a first or second class honours degree in physics or a similar discipline.
• A good undergraduate / masters degree in physics, electronic engineering, applied mathematics ,chemistry or materials science.

(BC-34) PhD Opportunity, Development of Tuneable Laser Tech. Application Information

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(BC-34) PhD Opportunity, Development of Tuneable Laser Tech. Summary

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