This platform grant will underpin integrated photonics research in advanced laser sources, photonic circuits, and sensors, at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, leveraging the recent investment of >£100M in the new Mountbatten Fabrication Complex. Photonic materials and device research has been the key driver of many disruptive advances in telecommunications, healthcare, data storage, display and manufacturing, and this platform grant will provide the group with the horizon and stability to build upon its international standing to explore new high-risk, high-reward research avenues. Integrated photonic materials and devices of the future will play a huge role in the next generation of cheaper, faster, greener, disposable, miniaturised and more versatile systems based on silica and silicon, glasses, crystal and polymer hosts, in both channel and planar geometries. The broad range of expertise within our group and our access to the unequalled brand-new planar fabrication facilities will allow us to fully explore this diverse research area. Impact will be realised through applications in compact kW-class waveguide lasers (new manufacturing techniques), pollution sensors (monitoring climate change), optical amplifiers and switches (high-speed data control), early threat detection devices (homeland security), and fast universally accessible disease screening (point-of-care medical diagnostics). Applications for the photonic materials, processes and devices developed during this platform grant will play a key role in fields of interest to society, Industry as well as university-based research and development, and will be pursued in collaboration with both existing and newly-identified partners during the programme.

Their surface asymmetry, high surface-to-volume ratios and confinement quantum effects of nanoparticles result in unprecedented properties for applications in healthcare, diagnosis, energy storage, electronics, sensors, catalysis, etc. However, the full impact of these nanomaterials to overcome some of the most pressing global challenges, is hindered by the lack of a manufacturing technology capable of their production in a continuous and reproducible manner in large scale. A plethora of nanoparticle syntheses has been developed over the last decades, aiming for the control of the size, shape and composition of nanoparticles as property-determining parameters. Conventionally, nanoparticles are synthesised in poorly characterised batch reactors. Flow systems enable the continuous synthesis, but they are currently limited to rapid processes (ms to a few minutes) due to their inherent instability issues. This project will deliver a novel model-driven self-optimised manufacturing technology for on-demand size- and composition-customised nanoparticles. The dial-a-particle platform will integrate, for the first time, real-time characterisation and hydrodynamic understanding to enable the development of mathematical predictive algorithms. They will be the pillar for the autonomous identification of the most interesting manufacturing route. The distinguishing novelty features of this approach are i. On-demand synthesis with a wide range size (2-100 nm) and composition (core-shell, hollow, multicomponent), ii. Self-control to mitigate instability sources associated to multi-stage continuous processes (extending the current state-of-the-art from seconds to minutes/hours) and iii. Universality, thanks to the mechanistic knowledge underpinning the mathematical models.