Overview
I received my first class Master's degree in Optical and Imaging technologies from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. During my undergraduate studies, I had the opportunity to acquire a solid background in imaging optics and photonics.
After graduating, I started to work as optical design engineer for several companies in Spain. Within this period, I have been involved in the roll-out of various projects in optical diagnostics for fusion energy, but also in optoelectronic devices for defence applications, such as thermal cameras, night vision equipment or laser-guided systems. More specifically, my activities have been focused in the field of optical design, tolerancing and testing of imaging and non-imaging systems, working in the VIS-NIR/MWIR/LWIR spectra.
Now, I'm looking forward to complete my studies, and expand my knowledge in an acadmeic environment here at the University of Exeter. During my PhD, I will be studying the possibility of using phase change material based metasurfaces to selectively control both amplitude and phase of optical wavefronts. My main goal is to explore the potential of these "phase-change metamaterials" as novel reconfigurable photonic devices, such as dynamic beam steerers, or amplitude and phase modulators.
Further information
PhD Project
Electronically-controllable optical wavefront shaping with phase-change metamaterials
Prof. David Wright and Dr Jacopo Bertolotti
The ability to control the detailed spatio-temporal nature of optical wavefronts using simple electronic methods would open up the route to a wide range of exciting applications [1], such as nanoscale imaging with light and nanoscale (light) lithography, imaging in complex and turbid media, enhanced sensitivity spectroscopy, even electronically reconfigurable holograms (a long-term holy grail in the display community).
Recent work in the area of low-dimensional phase-change films [2] and phase-change super-absorbers has shown that phase-change metamaterial structures should be able to offer precise electrically-activated control, on sub-wavelength scales, of both the amplitude and phase of optical wavefronts. Furthermore, such control can be achieved on the timescales of microseconds or even nanoseconds (whereas a significant limitation of many wavefront-control experiments is their slow operating speed, which limits potential applications).
In this project we will explore the potential of these phase-change metamaterial structures to selectively control the amplitude and/or phase of optical wavefronts. The limits of what might be achieved will be explored using theoretical techniques, and applications that show particular promise will be experimentally realised and tested.
[1] A Mosk et al., Nature Photonics 6, 283 (2012)
[2] P Hosseini, C D Wright & H Bhaskaran, Nature 511, 206 (2014)
