The integrated photonics field

Photonics is widely regarded as the key enabling technology of the 21st century and its application and use in many scientific and industrial fields is accelerated though Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), which combine many optical components into a miniaturized chip format. Similar to electronic ICs, PICs are revolutionizing areas such as healthcare, communication and sensing, and have the potential to be disruptive to the whole society.
A diversity of PIC-based sensors have been proposed in the last years, such as environmental sensors (e.g. gas sensing), medical sensors (e.g. optical coherence tomography), fiber Bragg grating sensors for temperature or strain measurement, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and others.

The PhD position

Recently, a new field of neuromorphic photonics is emerging, which aims to build artificial opto-electronic neurons that mimic the brain for processing information based on synapse processes. Taking advantage of their threshold-based characteristics, neuromorphic photonic devices can also be used for event-based sensing to allow recognition of patterns with an ultra-fast and energy-efficient performance.

We have recently made initial steps towards implementing opto-electronic neurons in InP integrated photonics. We demonstrated a first generation of resonant tunneling diodes (RTD), which display electrical excitable characteristics via tunneling effects. Full opto-electronic neuromorphic behavior was demonstrated by coupling the RTD with off-the-shelf external laser devices in cooperation with partners. See M. Hejda et.al. Nanophotonics 12(5), 2022.

We are now interested to pursue the monolithic integration of RTDs with photonic devices to form photonic neurons on chip, thereby setting the grounds for future large-scale neuromorphic photonic circuits. In this project, you will focus on the research of RTD-based neuromorphic photodetectors integrated with other waveguide-based photonic components and demonstrate their use in proof-of-principle event based sensing.

The work will comprise device design (incl. optical and electrical simulations), photonic chip layout, cleanroom fabrication and chip characterization in our laboratories. You will be part of the Photonic Integration (PhI) research group within the Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute (EHCI). The research will be done in collaboration with European partners from academia and industry.