The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Photonic Integration and Advanced Data Storage is a PhD programme partnership between the Irish Photonics Integration Centre, Queen’s University Belfast and University of Glasgow which aims to tackle some of the challenges created by the increasing quantities of data generated by today’s society.

PIADS is inspired by a unique technological opportunity – the intersection of photonic integration and data storage using Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). HAMR is the first truly mass market application for photonic integration, with projected volumes of up to 2 billion data recording heads per annum. Delivering photonic integration for HAMR is expected to open a multitude of new applications and markets that require low-cost integrated photonic solutions. These applications include, augmented/virtual reality systems, fibre-optic communication systems for the home and data centres, smart image-guided surgical instruments and miniature point-of-care and wearable medical diagnostic systems, all of which are currently being developed within the centre’s research programmes. The development of these technologies will be relevant to a wide spectrum of end-users – from telecommunications to biophotonics, in which optical technologies are applied to living organisms and health care.

Established in 2014 with substantial investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the PIADS CDT programme will help to address a skills shortage in the photonics industry by educating fifty future scientists and engineers over the next eight years.

The objective of the PIADS CDT is to train a new generation of researchers who are equipped to carry out world-leading R&D in photonics.

The CDT offers PhD students a cutting-edge research environment to undertake a diverse and exciting range of topical doctoral research projects which cut across physics, materials and electrical and optical engineering through to applications as diverse as data storage and biosciences.

The training programme provides a framework for student cohorts to be educated & trained together , to work across multiple centres and to learn from industry best practice, developing specialist technical research skills alongside innovation and business skills.

Snapshot of our 2020 research activities

Keep up to date on all that’s going on with the PIADS student cohort Follow @CDT_PIADS and our PIADS Centre web page 

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Shengtai Shi

PhD Project: High speed InP photonics compatible with micro-transfer printing

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute

Rhianne Curley

PhD Project: Precision targeted tumor responsive fluorophores: theranostic probes for real time biomarker sensing and for intraoperative fluorescence guided surgery

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Dublin City University

James McCloskey

PhD Project: Non-classical light emission from III-N quantum dots

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute

Robert Bernson

PhD Project: Design and Fabrication of Low-Cost Glass Substrates for Wafer-Level PIC Packaging

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute

Fariba Jamali

PhD Project:

Burst Mode Transmission for Coherent PONs

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute

Thomas O’Connor

PhD Project: Boron containing alloys of III-Nitride semiconductors for Ultraviolet emission

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute

Niall Boohan

PhD Project: Modelling and Design of Feedback Insensitive Lasers

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute

Ayse Atar

PhD Project: Inverted laser structures for photonic integration: epitaxy, simulation and design challenges

IPIC Partner Host Institute: Tyndall National Institute