PhD Studentship: 3D printed ultrafast optical metamaterials

Ultrafast lasers drive innovations from quantum technology to medical imaging, yet controlling femtosecond pulses remains a major challenge. Metamaterials are artificial structures with subwavelength features that enable tailored optical responses not found in nature—such as negative refractive index. This funded PhD studentship will develop 3D-printed optical metamaterials to sculpt ultrashort laser pulses for next-generation spectroscopy, sensing, and light–matter control.

The student will utilise different materials platforms with two-photon polymerisation (2PP) 3D printing to fabricate multiscale metamaterials with sub-200 nm resolution. The research spans fundamental optical physics through to applications, and the student will develop skills in electromagnetic simulation, nanofabrication within a state-of-the-art cleanroom, experimental optical systems and data analysis.

This research is ideally suited to candidates with interests in photonics, metamaterials, ultrafast optics, nanofabrication, and computational electromagnetism. Strong coding (Python /MATLAB) and experimental aptitude is desirable.

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