PhD Scholarship

Joint CSC/QMUL Scholarship available in the Centre for Electronics, Queen Mary University of London: for successful applicants, QMUL will provide a fee waiver and then the CSC will provide living expenses for 4 years, visa costs and one return flight to the UK

PI: Dr Riccardo Degl’Innocenti (r.deglinnocenti@qmul.ac.uk)

Design of next-generation metamaterial active optoelectronic devices for the Terahertz range.

 In this project the candidate will investigate the design of novel graphene-based, metamaterial optoelectronic devices for the active modulation of Terahertz radiation (e.g. [1-4]), such as beam steering, beam focusing and programmable metasurfaces. The candidate shall use forward and inverse design approach  by using standard FEM software and  machine learning tools. The realization of complex, graphene-based, metamaterial architecture, which find applications in spectroscopy and non-destructive testing for material investigation, requires the optimization of several parameters, making a forward traditional approach impractical and computer demanding. Inverse design instead, [5] paves the way for faster optimization of the desired functionalities and for the full exploitation of meta-optical devices in real-world applications [6].

The Antenna&EM group has acquainted expertise in the realization of THz optoelectronic devices. This project shall profit as well from the unique facilities present in the Antenna&EM group, e.g., two different THz-time-resolved spectroscopic systems, two optical-pump terahertz probe spectrometers, a powerful cw THz source, and quasi-optical VNAs on top of near-field mm-wave testing equipment.

[1] A. Zaman et al. ““Terahertz Metamaterial Optoelectronic Modulators with GHz Reconfiguration Speed,” IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology 12(5), 520-526, (2022).

[2] R. Degl’Innocenti et al. “Terahertz harmonic generation and nonlinear spectroscopy of metamaterial-gated/graphene resonators” APL Photonics 10, 056101 (2025).

[3] Y. Lu et al. “Near-field spectroscopy of individual asymmetric split-ring terahertz resonators” ACS Photon. 10(8), 2832-2838 (2023).

[4] S. Kindness et al “Active control of electromagnetically induced transparency in a coupled plasmonic resonator array with graphene for continuous frequency control of terahertz radiation” Adv. Optical Mater. 1800570 (2018).

[5] Z. Li et al. “Empowering Metasurfaces with Inverse Design: Principles and Applications,” ACS Photonics 9(7), 2178–2192 (2022).

[6] Y. Xu et al. “Physics-Informed Inverse Design of Programmable Metasurfaces” Adv. Sci., 11, 2406878 (2024)

For informal enquiries about the project and the eligibility criteria, please send an email to: Dr Riccardo Degl’Innocenti (r.deglinnocenti@qmul.ac.uk).