PhD in Physics - Bio imaging and sensing with entangled photons

About the Project

Start date: 01 October 2026

Entanglement between pairs of photons is playing a critical role in emerging sensing and imaging technologies. The temporal correlation between entangled photon pairs, i.e. the fact that they generated exactly two at a time, opens up possibilities for time resolved sensing and imaging in extremely challenging environments and a much lower cost than most equivalent methods. Imaging through the human body, and particularly inside the brain, presents one such challenging environment with a huge amount of potential societal benefit from detection of neurodegeneration to brain-computer interconnectivity.

The Extreme Light group at the University of Glasgow has a opening for a PhD student to develop the next generation of quantum-enabled optical techniques aimed at applications in both bio/healthcare related imaging by looking deep within biological tissues and ultrafast spectroscopy where light-sensitive molecules can be studied one photon at a time to gain greater insight into why photosynthesis is so efficient and how light is collected within the retina.

The project will be mostly aimed at experimental work, designing, building, and using sources of entangled photon pairs as well as investigating tools such as Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry where even greater temporal resolution can be gained by looking at the probability of photons bunching at a beamsplitter. The candidate will also gain practical experience using the latest generation of single photon sensitive cameras based on Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) arrays whose high frame rates and fast temporal response are finding new applications in fluorescence microscopy, LiDAR, and more advanced forms of time resolved imaging.

For more information, please contact Dr Ashley Lyons (ashley.lyons@glasgow.ac.uk) and Prof Daniele Faccio (daniele.faccio@glasgow.ac.uk). More information about the research group and our labs can be found at https://www.extremelight.org.uk/

How to Apply: Please refer to the following website for details on how to apply:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/opportunities/howtoapplyforaresearchdegree/.