Prof. Frederic Gardes (Group Leader)
Frederic Gardes is Professor at the Optoelectronic Research centre at the university of Southampton in the UK . He received his PhD in silicon photonics under the supervision of Professor Graham Reed. His research background covers CMOS photonics and in particular high-speed active optical devices in silicon, germanium and mid index waveguide. In 2005, he initiated work on silicon optical depletion modulators and was the first to predict operation above 40GHz. These modulators were demonstrated from(2008) in ring resonators and in MZI pn junctions in 2010, and 2011 at data rates up 50 Gb/s. The most recent work is the focus the research group with activity in SiGe epitaxy on insulator for modulation, detection and light emission and mid index waveguiding material systems such as silicon nitride. He has authored more than 250 publications in the field of silicon photonics and has multiple patents. A full publication list can be found on Google Scholar.
Email address: f.gardes@soton.ac.uk
Dr. Thalia Bucio Dominguez (Research fellow)
T. Domínguez Bucio was born in Mexico City, Mexico. She received the B. S. degree in electronic and computer engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico, in 2012 and the M.Sc. in photonic technologies from the University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. in 2013. She has completed her Ph.D. degree in optoelectronics at the University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. In 2018, she joined the group at the University of Southampton as a research fellow. Her research interests cover the development of a new material platform consisting of silicon nitride photonic applications.
Email address: t.dominguez_bucio@soton.ac.uk
Dr. Lorenzo Mastronardi (Research Fellow)
Dr. Katarzyna Grabska (Research Fellow)
Kasia was born in Poland. She received the B.E. and M.Sc. degree in applied physics at the Gdansk University of Technology in Poland. In 2016 she joined the group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton as a PhD student. She received her Ph.D. degree in 2020 and joined the Silicon Photonics group at the University of Southampton as a Research Fellow. Her research interests focus on the silicon germanium platform. She enjoys travelling and photography.
Email address: k.m.grabska@soton.ac.uk
Dr. Joaquin Faneca (Research Fellow)
Joaquin Faneca received the B.S degree in physics from the Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain, in 2015, and the M.Sc. degree in novel photonics and electronics technologies from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, in 2016. He received his Ph.D. degree with the University of Exeter, Exeter, U.K., in tunable silicon photonics-based on functional materials. In 2020 he joined the Silicon Photonics group at the University of Southampton as a Research Fellow. His research interests lie in the development of reconfigurable photonic integrated platforms based on smart materials for optical communication applications. In his free time, he plays football and tennis, he also likes photography and traveling.
Email address: joaquin.faneca-ruedas@soton.ac.uk
Dr. Yasir Noori (Senior Research Fellow)
Yasir has completed his PhD in quantum communications at Lancaster University after having been awarded a prestigious Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) studentship. His PhD work led to one patent, multiple high impact journal publications and conference awards. He then spent 1 year as a post-doctoral researcher where he demonstrated GaAs particle detectors as an upgrade to the traditional Si detectors of the ATLAS experiment. In 2018, Yasir joined the EPSRC programme “Advanced Devices by Electroplating” (ADEPT) as a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. In ADEPT, where he developed the electroplating method for phase change memory systems and 2D material heterostructure photodetectors. In 2020, Yasir joined another EPSRC programme, “QUantum Dots On Silicon for communication, information processing and sensing (QUDOS)” as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. Google Scholar
Email address:y.j.noori@southampton.ac.uk
Dr. Yaonan Hou (Research Fellow)
Dr. Yaonan Hou received his PhD degree in Condensed Matter Physics from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics) in 2012. Afterwards, he joined department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Sheffield (home to National Epitaxy Facility, formerly EPSCRC Center for III-V Technology), as a Research Associate (transferred to an open-end position at 2016) in III-nitride semiconductor photonic devices. In 2017, he moved to the research in group IV photonic materials at Innovation for High-Performance Microelectronics (known as IHP, a research institute belongs to Leibniz Association in Germany) as a Scientist. In 2019, he started the research in toroidal electrodynamics at ORC, University of Southampton as a Research Fellow. Afterwards, he joined the research project of “QUantum Dots On Silicon for communication, information processing and sensing (QUDOS)” in 2021. So far, he published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers including 2 topical review, 1 book chapter and several Chinese patents, with a total citation >800 times and H index of 13.
Email address: yaonan.hou@soton.ac.uk
Teerapat Rutirawut (Ph.D.)
He obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physics from Mahidol University, Thailand, and he joined the Silicon Photonics group at the University of Southampton as a Ph.D. student in September 2016 with funding support by the Royal Thai Government. His research is in the field of silicon nitride photonics, focusing on the development of active photonic devices on a SiN photonic platform.
Email address: t.rutirawut@soton.ac.uk
Stefan Ilie (Ph.D.)
Stefan received his MEng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton in 2018. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Silicon Photonics Group, ORC under the supervision of Dr. Frederic Gardes and Prof. Harold Chong, focusing on the development of a range of devices using silicon nitride for light manipulation on-chip and off plane beam collimation and steering. Applications for the development of this technology target LIDAR, LIFI and remote sensing.
Email address: sti1g14@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Ilias Skandalos (Ph.D.)
Ilias Skandalos was born in Larisa, Greece, in 1993. He graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), where he received an integrated BSc and MSc degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He joined the group in 2019 as a Ph.D. student. His research interests lie on the field of the monolithic co-integration of active components with micrometric Silicon Nitride waveguides towards fully integrated applications including lasers and modulators. In his free time, he likes cooking, playing basketball and also travelling.
Email address: is1f19@soton.ac.uk
Greta De Paoli (Ph.D.)
Email address: gdp1n18@soton.ac.uk
Afrooz Shoaa (Ph.D.) Email address: a.shoaa@soton.ac.uk
Ipsita Chakraborty (Ph.D.) Email address: i.chakraborty@soton.ac.uk
Email address: qian.zhang@soton.ac.uk
Past Students and Research fellows
Dr. Nannicha Hattasan (Huawei – Ipswich)
Nannicha Hattasan obtained her Ph.D. in heterogeneous integration of III-V on Si photonics circuit from Photonics research group-imec, Ghent University, Belgium in 2014. She then joined as a postdoctoral researcher at Tyndall National Institute, Ireland to work on the development of highly sensitive Ge/Si photodiodes using direct bonding approach. She has been a research fellow at the Optoelectronics Research Centre at University of Southampton, developing fabrication process for SiGe modulators in collaboration with Rockley Photonics. She is also co-ordinating COSMICC EU project on SiNx circuit designs in collaboration with ST microelectronics, CEA Leti and Université Paris-Sud. Her research interest includes heterogeneous integration and Si Photonics.
Dr. Callum Littlejohns (Research Fellow at NTU Singapore)
Dr. Callum Littlejohns completed his Ph.D. in the field of Silicon Photonics at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton in March 2015, having previously obtained a First Class Honours degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Surrey. He has now begun his career as a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, but remains part of the Silicon Photonics group as a visitor. He has a track record of excellence, having received multiple awards throughout his academic life, including the Information Overload category winner at the 2015 EPSRC ICT Pioneers Award and the runner-up prize in the Best Student Poster award at the 2014 Optoelectronics Research Centre Photonics Day. His work has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals including Scientific Reports, a Nature Publishing Group journal. His work was also selected as a prestigious post-deadline paper at the IEEE Group IV Photonics conference in Paris, 2014. The work completed during Callum’s PhD has been protected by two separate patents, both fully supported by the University of Southampton.
Email address:clittlejohns@ntu.edu.sg
