New ICFO-Corning Industrial Doctorate Opportunities

Optical displays and communication have a tremendous impact on modern life. We routinely interact with tactile smart phones and tablets, televisions and laser projection panels, and constantly use internet services.  Glass, either transparent screens or optical fibers, lies at the heart of virtually all optical display and communication technologies.

CORNING and ICFO are industrial and academic partners of the new Innovative Training Network (ITN) action NANO-GLASS- “Nano-structured glass for future display and communication technologies”. The project aims to introduce disruptive nano-structured designs and methods for glass display screens and optical fibers, and offers opportunities for four PhD students (Early Stage Researchers) to play a pivotal role in undertaking challenging projects with high industrial relevance. Potential outcomes of the research program include: optical screens that minimise reflections, improving visibility in sunlight; self-cleaning tactile displays that do not leave finger-prints; car windows that enable head up laser projection whilst still being transparent; optical fibers that generate quantum signals with high efficiency; and highly secure encryption of sensitive information over the internet.

CORNING has created Gorilla glass, the premier material for many kinds of display screen today, and introduced the first low loss optical silica fiber which has enabled the data transmission that powers the internet. Central topics to NANO-GLASS include nano-photonics and quantum technologies, two areas in which participating groups at ICFO are considered world-leaders.  ICFO and CORNING have enjoyed a long-standing collaborative relationship including a chaired faculty professorship at ICFO occupied by ICREA Prof. Valerio Pruneri, the Corning Surfaces Laboratory, and many projects of mutual interest.

PhD fellows in this ITN action will benefit from this ongoing collaboration and will face ambitious scientific and technical challenges, with the unique opportunity to bridge academic (fundamental) research to product (industrial) development. They will become leaders in highly relevant fields for the future society, which is increasingly permeated by ever more sophisticated display and communication technologies.

Candidates interested in applying for these PhD fellowships should apply to the Spring 2021 General Call for PhDs which is now open.

** EU Horizon 2020 MSCA-ITN-EID “Nano-structured glass for future display and communication technologies” (NANO GLASS) is open to well-qualified graduate students, who wish to obtain a doctoral degree in any of the research topics covered.