In my current role I am a senior postdoc in the Adaptive Quantum Optics group at the University of Twente, working with Prof. Pepijn Pinkse. Here I am primarily concerned with the development of an optical quantum readout physical unclonable key system for secure authentication purposes. This involves the modelling and designing of integrated photonic structures for the spectral shaping of femtosecond pulsed light, the development of novel waveguide and resonator designs that act as unclonable optical functions, and the exploration of new ways of using these devices in conjunction with photon pairs and quantum interference, both fundamentally and through actual experiment.

My work in the Optics group of Prof. Miles Padgett was focused on several projects requiring complex and high speed wavefront shaping and mathematical optimisation techniques for solving underdetermined linear or quadratic systems.My main project involved the development of time of flight based Lidar systems operating through multimode optical fibres. In these fibres light gets unrecognisably scrambled into speckle patterns, which makes naive imaging impossible. However high speed wavefront shaping lets us measure the exact way this happens, and by extension unscramble the light. Using nanosecond pulsed lasers with this system turns the whole system into a 3D camera thinner than a human hair.A secondary project I was the main researcher on involved the investigation of novel computational ghost imaging algorithms for use in less than ideal situations where sampling is restricted to non-orthogonal patterns, e.g. caustics as formed by turbulent water surfaces, or highly aberrated focal spots for use in TEM. These systems use a single detector pixel in combination with varying illumination to reconstruct an image.

My work was focused on developing several types of dielectric metasurfaces with functionalities beyond the simple shaping of wavefronts. This includes work in collaboration with Prof. Ifor Samuel and Prof. Kishan Dholakia at the University of St Andrews on active metasurfaces that incorporate organic semiconductor lasers, as well as multiplexed metasurfaces that achieve multiple functionalities in a single device, such as concurrently generating a vortex beam and a gaussian beam at different wavelengths.

PhD in the Photonics group of Prof. Thomas F. Krauss at the University of York, titled “Shaping light beams with dielectric metasurfaces.” I studied the manipulation of the wavefronts of light beams using high contrast gratings in silicon. My project primarily involved the development of a theoretical framework, design algorithms and modelling of the expected behaviour of such metasurfaces using MATLAB and COMSOL, but also included cleanroom fabrication and experimental characterisationof the devices. I led the overall design and simulation work in the group and advised other students on the modelling aspects of their projects. A significant part of my PhD was also spent on an ultimately unsuccessful foray into mid infrared nonlinear photonic crystal behaviour in collaboration with Prof. Ben Eggleton at CUDOS in Sydney, with a focus on trying to observe second harmonic generation in Silicon-On-Insulator and Silicon-On-Sapphire platforms.

Teaching assistant for the module "Electromagnetism and Optics" at the University of York, dealing with basic electromagnetism and optics subjects such as Maxwell's equations, Faraday's law, double slit interference, etc. My responsibilities were grading homework and assisting during problem classes.

Master research project in the Magnetic and Superconducting Materials group of Prof. Jan Aarts at Leiden University on the effects of a polarised ferroelectric substrate on the electronic properties of graphene using scanning probe techniques.

Research internship in the Nano Optics group of Prof. Kobus Kuipers at the FOM institute AMOLF, focused on using COMSOL finite element modelling to study the plasmonic resonances of subwavelength scale Mobius rings.