Optical Theory Group

3 May 2023: Together with Zahid Yaqoob, Matthew Foreman is guest editing a new Special Issue in Sensors MDPI on "Advanced Sensing and Imaging Technologies". Please consider submitting an original article or review. We invite contributions in these fields including, but certainly not limited to, recent developments in optical bio-, chemical or physical sensors, molecular detection, microscopy, fluorescence, deep-tissue or computational imaging and their applications in healthcare, nanotechnology, metrology, environmental monitoring, defence and/or astronomy. The deadline for submissions is 20 August 2023. Full details can be found here.

20 Apr 2023: Niall successfully defended his PhD thesis today after a long 4+ hour viva! Congratulations on the hard work. His thesis centers around developing a numerical modelling technique describing propagation of polarised light through disordered media, and will be available soon. Thanks also to his two examiners. Prof. Jacopo Bertolotti from University of Exeter and Dr. Eva-Maria Graefe from Imperial College.

2 Apr 2023: It is time again for the Focus on Microscopy conference. This year Zhonghe is in Porto, Portugal to present his poster on polarisation sensitive phase contrast microscopy as a route to readout of polarisation multiplexed optical data storage. If you want a preview of his poster you can view it here. Good luck Zhonghe!

30 Mar 2023: We are now recruiting for two Research Fellow positions at the Insitute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS) in Singapore. We have a theoretical position focusing on nanophotonics (see here or here) and an experimental position building nanoparticle and SERS based microscopes (see here or here). Applications close on April 13.

1 Mar 2023: The group has finally moved! After saying his goodbyes at Imperial College, Matthew has started his new role as Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Niall Byrnes will be joining him soon to continue his research on modelling propagation of polarised light in random media. PhD positions are still available so please check them out if you fancy joining the group.

1 Feb 2023: After a final push Niall has just submitted his PhD thesis on random matrix modelling of polarised light scattering in disordered media! A big congratulations on what is an excellent piece of work.

14 Dec 2022: Our latest paper in Waves in Random and Complex Media has just gone live online. In it we describe a new random matrix modelling technique to describe propagation of polarized light through a random scattering medium. It is open access, so check it out now!

21 Oct 2022: We have funding available for a number of PhD positions based at NTU Singapore. A list of currently available projects can be found here. Contact Matthew Foreman if you are interested in joining the team or want more information.

21 Oct 2022: After 7.5 years at Imperial College, the group is moving! As of March 2023, Matthew will take up an Assistant Professor position at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Matthew's appointment is in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and he will be working closely with the Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS).

30 Aug 2022: Photon22, held in Nottingham this year, was an interesting and diverse conference, drawing together many experts on sensing and polarization optics from around the UK and beyond. We were there presenting our work on single particle plasmonic sensing.

3 Aug 2022: Niall presented his poster on modelling polarised light scattering in disordered media with a random matrix approach at the 2022 Complex Nanophotonics Science Camp. Thanks to all for their interest and questions.

8 Jun 2022: The London Plasmonics Forum was held at Imperial College this year. There was a diverse range of talks. Matthew was there presenting a poster on our recent single particle plasmonic sensing work. It was good to catch up with some old colleagues and meet some new ones.

1 Jun 2022: We are happy to welcome Haomin back to the group. After succesfully completing his BSc project with us he will continue his work looking at point spread function engineering in polarisation microscopes as a summer research project.

20 May 2022: Check out our latest arXiv preprint which details our new random matrix model capable of describing anisotropic scattering of polarised light in thick scattering media. We enforce a number of physical constraints on randomly generated scattering matrices and can describe polarisation dependent media such as suspensions of chiral particles.

13 Apr 2022: It was nice to get back to the Focus on Microscopy conference this year after a few years away. Smaller conference than usual but still a good number of interesting high quality talks. Thanks to the organising committee.

20 Feb 2022: We have added a new page to our group website, where you can view some of our recent posters that have presented at a variety of conferences and workshops. Click here to take a look now.

17 Feb 2022: Congratulations to Joel for successfully defending his PhD thesis on random scattering of surface plasmons for biosensing. Read it here. Thanks also to his examiners Prof. Thomas Søndergaard and Prof. Martin McCall.

8 Jan 2022: The group welcomes its latest additions: Haomin Zhang and Sun Yang, who will be undertaking their BSc final year research project with us.

17 Dec 2021: Well done to Joel for submitting his PhD thesis today! With all the turbulence of the pandemic this is a major achievement and required a lot of hard work! You have earnt a good break before your viva. Congratulations!

15 Dec 2021: After some unfortunate covid delays, our experimental collaboration with Prof. Donghyun Kim and Hongki Lee from Yonsei University has born fruit! Read all about our work demonstrating single label free nanoparticle detection using random scattering of surface plasmons on a random nanoisland sensor, in our paper just published in Nanotechnology.

8 Dec 2021: Due to recent covid outbreaks in China, both the ICOEO and PIERS conferences are postponed. This means you will unfortunately have to wait until 25-27 March 2022 and 25-29 April 2022 respectively to see talks from Niall and Matthew.

15 Oct 2021: You can read our latest preprint describing recent experimental results from our collaboration with Prof. Donghyun Kim of Yonsei University and his group, showing single particle detection using random plasmon scattering.

29 Sep 2021: Our latest article on the polarisation properties of a restricted class of random scattering media has finally been published in Optics Communications.

6 Sep 2021: Matthew gave a keynote talk as part of the IOP Stochastic Electromagnetism and Coherence Conference discussing our recent work on modelling of polarisation imaging through scattering media. There was a wide diverse range of speakers at this interesting event. Many thanks to the organisers for the invitation.

2 Aug 2021: The second of our papers discussing enhancing single particle detection using multiple scattering has just been published in Physical Review Research. This article focuses on the particular role absorption can play on achievable enhancements.

21 Jul 2021: Joel will be presenting his recent work on tracking single particles using random scattering at the OSA Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress tomorrow as part of the Nanophotonics and Plasmonics Biosensors III session. If you are attending then check out his talk!

19 Jul 2021: Our recent theoretical article on enhancing single particle detection using multiple scattering has just been published in ACS Photonics. Well done to Joel for his hard work on this!

11 Jun 2021: Matthew has been invited to become a Editor for the Sensing and Imaging Section of the MDPI Sensors journal.

12 May 2021: New collaborative paper has just been published in Optics Letters in which Harald Schwefel and his group from the University of Otago in New Zealand experimentally realise predictions we made of anomalous resonance shifts in optical resonators.

7 May 2021: We have just submitted two new preprints to arXiv on our work on multiple scattering of surface plasmons as a means to enhance single particle detection. You can read them here and here.

2 May 2021: Joel gave a nice talk as part of the Photonics seminar series about his PhD results so far.

30 Apr 2021: We have been successful in our funding application. The Royal Society has extended Matthew's University Research Fellowship for a further 3 years. The project includes study of polarization imaging through scattering media and fundamental analysis of such systems from an information theoretic perspective.

29 Apr 2021: Joel has been accepted to give a talk at the OSA Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress. Congratulations!

28 Apr 2021: Matthew attended the second session of the Waves in Time-Varying Media workshop. An interesting set of talks, just as with the first session on the March 31st. Thanks to the organising committee.

10 Feb 2021: Niall's paper looking at various physical symmetry constraints imposed on vector scattering and transfer matrices has just been published in Physical Review Research.

9 Oct 2020: Cheryl Seow has just had her paper published in Optics Letters. She reports on her PhD work, co-supervised by Peter Török, looking at using single pixel imaging for polarimetric studies through thick strongly scattering media.

5 Oct 2020: A new member has joined the group. We welcome Zhonghe Feng who also works jointly in the group of Prof. Mark Neil. As part of a Microsoft funded project, he will focus on building and modelling a system capable of measuring 3D birefringence distributions.

15 Apr 2020: Despite current coronavirus restrictions Cheryl has successfully defended her PhD thesis on single pixel polarimetric imaging through scattering media. Congratulations - well deserved! Thanks also to her PhD examiners Dr. Peter Munro and Prof. Chris Dunsby. Read her thesis here.