Taming the chaos in next-generation lasers

The impact of lasers is ubiquitous in our lives, driving technological advancements in smartphones, augmented reality, self-driving cars, and data communication. Even the project description you are currently reading was laser-encoded during its transmission before it reached your screen. While current lasers address today's challenges, the lasers of tomorrow must meet stricter tolerances, higher speeds, and greater power requirements. These extreme conditions often give rise to spatiotemporal instabilities, including mode chaos. This project will enable the measurement and elimination of mode chaos, paving the way for a new generation of commercial lasers that will revolutionise the existing telecom speeds and the precision of laser manufacturing. This project seeks to solve the problem by unravelling the evolving beam's structure on picosecond timescales using an optical device that dissects the beam in space, time, spectrum, and polarisation, using a novel single-shot quantum state tomography approach that we developed in our group. The expected outcome is a suite of software and hardware tools capable of guiding global efforts to develop next-generation lasers together with our industry partner Coherent, one of the largest laser manufacturers in the world.

You will be working in a tight-knit team that has a mix of PhD students and early/mid-career academics whose passion is the shaping and characterisation of light for diverse applications ranging from imaging structures deep in the brain, all the way to developing platforms for faster telecommunications. You will learn how to interface with the hardware that enables optical beam-shaping and write code in Python, C, C++, CUDA C or whatever you fancy to drive the experiments and analyse the data. You will also have opportunities to travel to and work with our industry collaborator Coherent, US and have a chance to get familiar with other industry-related activities in our group with Nokia Bell Labs, US. 

To get a better feeling for what our group does, please see our webpage.

This is an Earmarked scholarship project that aligns with a recently awarded Australian Government grant.

The scholarship includes:

• living stipend of $35,000 per annum tax free (2024 rate), indexed annually
• your tuition fees covered
• single overseas student health cover (OSHC).

Learn more about the Earmarked scholarship.

Your application will be assessed on a competitive basis.

We take into account your:

• previous academic record
• publication record
• honours and awards
• employment history

 A working knowledge of Python, C, C++ and CUDA C would be of benefit to someone working on this project.

You will demonstrate academic achievement in the field/s physics, photonics, maths, or computer science, and the potential for scholastic success.

A background or knowledge laser and optics concepts, as well as solid exposure to software engineering is highly desirable.

This project requires candidates to commence no later than Research Quarter 4, 2024. To allow time for your application to be processed, we recommend applying no later than 30 June, 2024 31 March, 2024.

You can start in an earlier research quarter. See application dates.

Before you apply

1. Check your eligibility for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
2. Prepare your documentation.
3. Contact Dr Martin Ploschner (m.ploschner@uq.edu.au) to discuss your interest and suitability.

When you apply

You apply for this scholarship when you submit an application for a PhD. You don’t need to submit a separate scholarship application.

In your application ensure that under the ‘Scholarships and collaborative study’ section you select:

• My higher degree is not collaborative
• I am applying for, or have been awarded a scholarship or sponsorship
• UQ Earmarked Scholarship type.

Apply now