CDT in Applied Photonics - Heriot-Watt University

Celebrating 21 years!

2022 marked our anniversary as the UK's longest running Applied Photonics Centre for Doctoral Training.

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2023/24 Annual Report

Read about the Centre's most recent achievements in our 2023/24 Annual Report

View Annual Report

SUSSP81 Summer School in Photonic Sensing & Metrology for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Stirling, Scotland, 7th-15th June 2025

Find out more and register your interest

Training for CDT Supervisors

Calling all CDT supervisors - come and join us for a half-day training workshop and lunch in April 2025

Find out more and register your interest

Prospective Students

Our four year programme places our research students on industry inspired projects leading to award of PhD or EngD. The EngD qualification is an alternative to a traditional PhD aimed at students seeking a career in industry, and reflects the innovative nature of industrial research.

Students spend around 75% of their time working directly with a company, in addition to receiving advanced-level training from a broad portfolio of technical and business courses.

Academic & Industrial Partners

The research projects will offer benefits to your company by:

Increasing the research portfolio in a cost-effective way
Providing access to University laboratories and facilities
Creating opportunities to make contacts with other sponsor companies

Aiding the retention of existing staff who wish to study for a doctorate degree and continue with their employment

Available EngD & PhD Projects

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Novel laser sources in the mid-infrared spectral region for security and sensing applications

PhD
EngD

Company: Fraunhofer

University: University of Strathclyde

Supervisor: Professor Alan Kemp

Project DescriptionThis project will address the urgent requirement for new photonics tools in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral region to police stricter greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards and to progress imaging capabilities in poor visibility for security applications.The majority of the so-called “fingerprint” absorption bands for GHGs are in the mid-IR...

Slotted photonic crystal waveguides as a platform for surface enhanced Raman detection of hydrogen🌐

PhD
EngD

Company: AWE

University: University of St Andrews

Supervisor: Professor Andrea Di Falco

Project DescriptionThe detection of hydrogen gas is important in many industries (petrochemical, civil nuclear, transport etc) due to its highly flammable nature. This need is likely to grow in the near future as hydrogen is used as the fuel of choice in many applications to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Typically,...

Next generation long range laser rangefinders based on single photon detectors and new laser technologies

PhD
EngD

Company: Thales

University: Heriot-Watt University

Supervisor: Professor Gerald Buller and Dr Aongus McCarthy

Project Description Laser Rangefinders are a key element of modern sensor systems and can range up to 20km with an accuracy of less than 1m. Thales UK produced the first in-service laser rangefinder in 1965, just a few years after the invention of the laser, and have been designing and...

uLED-based lab-on-chip platform

PhD
EngD

Company: Fraunhofer

University: University of Strathclyde

Supervisor: Dr Nicolas Laurand

Project DescriptionThe Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP) has several vacancies for exciting, varied and challenging applied R and D studentships in photonics, lasers and optical systems. We welcome applications from all students with the relevant qualifications – a strong undergraduate degree in Physics or Engineering with possible photonics or...

Beam steering systems for remote sensing applications

PhD
EngD

Company: Fraunhofer

University: Heriot-Watt University

Supervisor: Professor Robert Thomson

Project DescriptionThis project seeks to investigate novel beam steering techniques for use in remote sensing applications. Remote sensing covers a wide range of industrial applications, such as automotive Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR), over-the-fence pollutant monitoring, stand-off chemical sensing, underwater imaging, and many more. Free space optical communications also has...

Novel Fibre Sensing Technologies for Restrictive Engineering Environments

PhD
EngD

Company: AWE

University: Heriot Watt University

Supervisor: Dr Bill MacPherson

Project DescriptionAdvanced engineering systems often contain multiple components for which knowledge of the alignment, or exact component position, is critical to better understand the state of the system. In this project, the systems are sealed with limited access routes, and therefore a miniaturised, minimally invasive sensor solution is ideal. Optical...

Advance diversity techniques for underwater optical communication and sensing

PhD
EngD

Company: Fraunhofer

University: University of Strathclyde

Supervisor: Dr Sujan Rajbhandari

Project Description The emergence of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), combined with the expansion of underwater infrastructure has led to a huge opportunity for underwater optical communication and sensing. Surveying and monitoring now create huge quantities of data and being able to wirelessly transfer them to...

Automation of the spectroscopic characterisation of OLED materials 🌐

PhD
EngD

Company: Edinburgh Instruments Ltd

University: University of St Andrews

Supervisor: Professor Eli Zysman-Colman

Project DescriptionAn OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) is a type of light-emitting diode where the light-emitting layer is made of organic compounds. These compounds emit light in response to an electric current and are widely used in digital displays such as TVs and smartphones.The efficiency of the device is inextricably linked...

Hybrid manufacturing of photonic devices for advanced sensing applications

PhD
EngD

Company: Fraunhofer

University: Heriot Watt University

Supervisor: Dr Richard Carter

Project DescriptionThis project will develop new hybrid photonic devices using two emerging rapid prototyping techniques to translate breakthrough optical sensing techniques to practical field portable sensing systems. Ultrafast laser inscription exploits the incredibly high fields found when a train of femtosecond pulses is focused inside a transparent material to create...

Shortcut mitigation for medical imaging foundational models for segmentation

PhD
EngD

Company: Canon Medical Research Europe

University: University of Edinburgh

Supervisor: Professor Sotirios Tsaftaris

Project Description Imaging foundational models (IFM) are often defined as versatile deep learning models performing a task-agnostic feature extraction using a robust backbone pre-trained via self-supervised, semi-supervised or fully supervised methods on a large-scale, diverse dataset. They are often initially developed for a wide range of clinical use-cases or downstream...

Remote, range-resolved ultra-violet Raman spectroscopy for safety in hydrogen fuel and nuclear industries

PhD
EngD

Company: Fraunhofer

University: University of Strathclyde

Supervisor: Dr David Li

Project Description The detection and monitoring of substances from a distance is extremely important to several industrial production and safety processes. This project will be focused on remote gas sensing in air using Raman scattering for safety applications in nuclear and hydrogen fuel industries. The Raman scattering signal, albeit weak,...