TRADES · Training & Research in Advanced Dispersion Engineered grating-waveguide Structures

The TRADES doctoral training network aims to address a skills gap in the photonics sector by training a cohort of 15 doctoral candidates with the advanced skills necessary for the development of innovative and enabling photonics components. The network will deliver a research and training programme focussed on key steps in product development from concept, through sustainable production and precise characterisation, right up to implementation, and will equip the doctoral candidates with the interdisciplinary skills necessary to drive the research forward. The network fellows will design and develop robust dispersive components based on sub-wavelength gratings waveguide structures to produce gratings for both intra-cavity and extra-cavity applications in high power lasers operating in the 1 and 2 µm spectral regions. To do so the fellows will push state of the art deposition, lithographic and etching techniques to their limits, and explore how they can be used to optimise the manufacturability, efficiency (>99.9%) and LIDT > 1J/cm2 for sub-ps pulses, of the final gratings. In parallel the fellows will be provided with non-academic research exposure and training in innovation management, enterprise and entrepreneurship in a highly integrated format beyond the normal generic skills training. This will contribute to producing highly sought after graduates, who are capable of inventing, innovating and converting knowledge into products and services for economic benefit and are fluent in the business planning and innovation management aspects of their research. Preparing them for future careers in photonic technology research and development.