PhD: Ultrafast Spatiotemporal Metasurface Photonics

Departments, Department of Applied Physics and Science Education; Eindhoven; On-site; EUR 36,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) seeks a PhD candidate to develop frequency-gradient metasurfaces for ultrafast beam steering and temporal focusing. You will design, model, fabricate, and test nanophotonic structures within an interdisciplinary PSN group.

Based at TU/e, you will spend six months at INESC MN in Portugal and three months at NKT Photonics in Denmark as part of the SPARK MSCA network, with broad training across Europe.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Applied Physics, Physics, Optics/Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science or related field.
• Strong foundation in electromagnetics, optics, and/or photonics.
• Experience with scientific programming or electromagnetic modelling (Python, MATLAB, COMSOL, Lumerical, Tidy3D).
• Interest or experience in nanophotonics, metasurfaces, structured light, ultrafast optics, nanofabrication, or optical experiments.

Responsibilities

• Develop design strategies for 2D and 3D frequency-gradient metasurfaces.
• Model and optimize electromagnetic, spectral, and dispersive responses.
• Explore ultrafast beam steering, temporal focusing, and self-torque generation.
• Fabricate nanophotonic structures using TU/e cleanroom facilities.
• Build femtosecond optical experiments to characterize spatiotemporal light fields.
• Refine designs based on experimental results to improve performance.

Skills

Electromagnetics

Optics

Photonics

Structured light

Nanophotonics

Ultrafast optics

Programming

Teamwork

Education

Master’s degree in Applied Physics/Physics/Optics/Photonic

Strong electromagnetics/optics foundation

Tools

Python

MATLAB

COMSOL

Lumerical

Tidy3D

Job description

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) seeks a PhD candidate to develop frequency-gradient metasurfaces for ultrafast beam steering and temporal focusing. You will design, model, fabricate, and test nanophotonic structures within an interdisciplinary PSN group.

Based at TU/e, you will spend six months at INESC MN in Portugal and three months at NKT Photonics in Denmark as part of the SPARK MSCA network, with broad training across Europe.