Research opportunities at CMMPE — Dr. Tim Wilkinson

We are currently looking for new PhD students who would be interested in pursuing research in any of the following areas. For further information and enquiries, please contact Tim Wilkinson.

 

Optical holography and adaptive optics

The power of a hologram to manipulate an optical wavefront has been an exciting field of research since the work of Denis Gabor. We have recently pioneered many applications of computer generated holograms from video projectors, 3D displays and PIV analysis. Since the availability of cheap high resolution microdisplays (now made specifically for phase modulation) it has been possible to dynamically manipulate wavefronts holographically in real time. This opens up many different applications as displays as well as adaptive optical components. We are looking for students to work in all areas of the applications of holography from displays to adaptive mode control in optical waveguides. This area spans a wide variety of applications telecoms (adaptive free space optical interconnects and fibre node control/MIMO), biomedical (adaptive ophthalmic imaging and OCT) through to image correction and reconstruction in displays.

Liquid crystal electro-optic effects

We are always looking to push back the boundaries on liquid crystal structures in both speed and electro-optic effects. Many of the applications we are currently researching could benefit from new, enhanced, specialised liquid crystal (or some other type) effects. This is especially the case for pure phase modulation where it is almost impossible to perform multi-level phase modulation reliably at frame rates in excess of 1kHz.

 

Novel liquid crystal devices

We are always trying to find new device structures both for applications such as holography as well as test structures for new electro-optical effects. Simple example might include in-plane electric field structures right through to hybrid liquid crystal/silicon devices such as liquid crystal over silicon (LCOS) and devices using carbon nanotubes and nanowires as electrodes or surface control elements. CMMPE has access to 2 large bays in the CAPE class 1000/100 cleanroom facility and also to a huge range of different processing options from deep reactive ion etching to double sided lithography. Research into new devices includes both the fabrication as well as the testing and characterisation of such structures.

Optical correlators and comparators

Over the last few years, we have developed both sophisticated correlator systems as well as cheap and cheerful optical images processors (all at the speed of light!!). We are looking for new students who are interested in combining both the power of optics with the efficiency of image processing techniques in new optical pattern recognition systems. New applications such as image searching, head tracking and surface tracking are all being implemented with this technology.