European Joint Doctorate Programme on Optical Sensing using Advanced Photo-Induced Effects

ended

Photonics is a key technology of the 21st century and has been identified by the European Investment Bank as being one of “the building blocks of the next digital revolution”. Photonics, with an expected world market of €615B by 2020, underpins all aspects of modern society, including optical telecommunications, biophotonics, medical technology devices and materials processing. Sensing is the largest application sector within European photonics; the compact, portable non-invasive potential of optical sensors makes them ideal solutions for industrial process analysis, environmental monitoring and food analysis. The strong industrial activity in Europe supports the employment of large numbers of highly qualified personnel, and with intense competition from China, USA and others, the demand for suitably qualified graduates has never been higher. Optical sensing is intrinsically a multi-disciplinary topic, requiring expertise in chemistry, physics and engineering; it is therefore ideally suited to a European Joint Doctorate programme. The OPTAPHI consortium brings together 5 world-leading research groups and 11 partner organisations to offer a cohort of 14 ESRs a unique opportunity; a PhD programme with cross-disciplinary training in both integrated photonics and advanced spectroscopy techniques, a double degree awarded by two of Europe's leading institutions and co-supervision by experts in each of the complementary fields. The network will focus on the cutting-edge technologies of Quartz Enhanced Photo-Acoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS) and Photo-Thermal Spectroscopy (PTS) and includes an exciting programme of workshops, summer school and conference. OPTAPHI will demonstrate compact sensors that can be used in unmanned aerial vehicles for environment sensing, as low cost sensors for food monitoring and in industrial Process Analytical Technology, and produce new state of the art quantum cascade lasers and hybrid photonic crystal lasers customised for QEPAS and PTS.