Research Associate in Experimental Photonics

Research Associate in Experimental Photonics
Specialist and Supporting Academic Research grade 6 from £33,966

School of Science

We are delighted to offer a post for a Research Fellow in Photonics funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The post is part of the Leverhulme Trust Project HYPERSIGHT - Terahertz 4-Dimensional Microscopy (about £1M worth) and directly stems from the activities of the EU-ERC Project TIMING (about £1.5M worth) on Time-Resolved Nonlinear Ghost Imaging.

Background: generally, access to microscopic domains is fundamentally limited by the diffraction law. Capturing objects smaller than the electromagnetic wavelength is challenging. Interestingly, in many domains, a core motivator of electromagnetic sensing is the extraction of the spectral fingerprint of an object. Yet, the ability to recover sub-wavelength 3-dimensional objects preserving spectral features (an additional dimension) of all of its parts is sharply beyond our abilities. HYPERSIGHT aims to use Terahertz radiation combined with ultrafast Photonics to push the boundary of what we can see in the microscopic world, sharply beyond the state of the art. The goal requires a foundational study and a typical high-risk high-gain research approach, with dense fundamental and applied research outputs and the generation novel intellectual properties of industrial interest.  The research fellow will be part of large-concerted action towards the project goals and will be leader of a specific complex research task with the possibility to shape the project future development and also the creation of novel research action following the outcomes.

We believe the project goal to be very disruptive on the field and impossible to achieve with simple incremental action above the art. The research team will express a connected theoretical-experimental effort, connecting several disciplines e.g. terahertz, nonlinear ultrafast photonics, complexity, several advanced modelling approaches (machine learning and inverse problems).

The project will take place at the Emergent Photonics Research Centre of Loughborough University (https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/emergent-photonics/), that is a ~500sqm infrastructure  focused on photonics complexity for a total investment exceeding £1.2M in three years in capital equipment and staff. The centre is part of the Department of Physics of the School of Science which focuses of technological areas of interest for Terahertz research and embed a very extensive in complexity, quantum technology and material science for photonics applications. This tangible move towards the photonics subject area is counterpointed by the creation of specific academic curricula within the domain, progressively growing from the next academic year.

Excellent researchers with a qualification in STEM subjects that overlap with the subject fields of ultrafast photonics, terahertz photonics and nonlinear optics are welcome to apply. We welcome application from candidates with atypical research career and specific research experience beneficial to the project goals.

Eligible candidate should be proficient in the general requirement of experimental photonics with ultrafast lasers, but we welcome applications from individual with hybrid theoretical-experimental profile. Desirable qualities include specific theoretical, numerical and experimental experience in terahertz photonics, ultrafast imaging and nonlinear optics and, more in general, research background in the disciplines covered by the project.

Loughborough University is committed to promote diversity of experience, thought and perspective and committed to comprehensive EDI strategies covering several aspects of being part of the university, including staff recruitment. As such, we welcome applications from under-represented groups, request to fit specific need in any phase of the selection, and any discussion regarding work and workload arrangements.

For more information refer to the Job Description and Person Specification.