Dr. Daniel Ho, an Associate Professor (Reader) of Nanophotonics and Electrical Engineering, joined Northumbria University in 2019. His academic journey began with a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the National Taipei University of Technology in Taiwan. Later, he pursued his PhD in Quantum Optics at the University of Bristol. Prior to joining the Mathematics, Physics, and Electrical Engineering department at Northumbria, Dr. Ho served as a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. During this time, he also played a key role as the Co-Investigator in two EPSRC Research projects: EP/M009033/1 and EP/P034446/1.
Dr. Ho's research group, the Nanophotonic Engineering Laboratory, focuses on several exciting areas including Artificially Structured Materials, Opto-Electrical Characteristics, Scattering Reflectance Measurements using Fourier imaging spectroscopy (FIS), and Nanofabrication Approaches ( FIB, DLW-2PP, ELB, CVD, and ALD, etc.). These research efforts pave the way for applications in nanophotonics, optoelectronics, energy storage, medical devices, and quantum technologies.
Dr. Ho's current research projects are generously supported by funding 3D Nanophotonics in Artificially Structured Chalcogenide Materials (EPSRC New Investigator Award - EP/V040030/1), Additive Micro/Nano-Manufacturing of Structured Piezoelectric Active Materials for Intelligent Stent Monitoring (EPSRC ECR international collaboration grant - EP/Y003551/1), and Hyperuniform Disordered Metasurfaces for Selective Absorbers (EPSRC joint project with the University of Surrey and University of Bristol - EP/Y016440/1).
Dr. Ho is also a Visiting Academic in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol.

Daniel's research is concerned with both the theory and application of artificially structured electromagnetic materials for photonic engineering, quantum technologies, and energy applications.

• Nanophotonics & Quantum Optics:
  • Single-photons on demand
  • 3D Nanophotonics in artificially structured materials
  • Micro-Nanostructure-Stabilized Liquid-Crystalline Blue-Phase
  • Optical Microcavites and Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics
• Nano/Micro-Structured Materials for Energy Applications:
  • Solar-thermal absorbers
  • 3D Architectured Hybrid Materials for Electrodes and Catalysts
• Nano/Micro-Structured Materials for Medical Applications:
  • Multi-Functional Materials for Smart Stents Sensing

Accepting PhD Students to join the Nanophotonic Engineering Laboratory (NEL)

If you are an exceptional candidate with an interest in the following topics, please contact: [email protected] or [email protected]

• Three-dimensional Nanophotonics in Artificially Structured Materials.
• Artificially Nano-structured Materials for Three-dimensional Electrodes and Catalysts.
• Scalable Two-dimensional Layered Materials for Efficient Quantum Photon Sources.
• Topology-optimised Metasurface Architectures for Solar-Thermal Absorption.
• Additive Micro/Nano-manufacturing of Structured Piezoelectric Active Materials for Intelligent Stent Monitoring.
• Micro-Nanostructure-Stabilized Liquid-Crystalline Blue-Phase.

Latest News

• 11-04-2024 Our EPSRC joint project (EP/Y016440/1) "Hyperuniform Disordered Metasurfaces for Selective Absorbers" has just been granted! A news item is released - Project to boost solar energy capture awarded £1.1 million.
• 12-02-2024 Check out our collaboration with Dr Jonathan Mar from Newcastle University to celebrate the Year of the Dragon, which is now available to the public! X(Twitter), LinkedIn, facebook, Threads, and Instagram.
• 09-01-2024 Our EPSRC networking project (EP/Y003551/1), which has recently been granted, is featured in the Engineer Magazine - Smart Stent to warn of restenosis.
• 18 – 21-09 2023 Nadira will present the paper "3D Pyrolyzed Carbon Modified with g-C3N4@Ni Electrodeposit for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Generation" at the E-MRS 2023 Fall Meeting in Warsaw, Poland.
• 29-05-2023 Our EPSRC ECR international collaboration grant project "Additive Micro/Nano-manufacturing of Structured Piezoelectric Active Materials for Intelligent Stent Monitoring" has just been granted!
• 26 – 30 June NEL will present the papers at the CLEO®/Europe-EQEC 2023 in Munich, Germany.
• 25-04-2023 Check out our latest publication on “Conformal CVD-grown MoS2 on Three-dimensional Woodpile Photonic Crystals for Photonic Bandgap Engineering”, ACS Applied Optical Materials. 
• 29 May - 02 June 2023 NEL presented the papers at the E-MRS 2023 Spring Meeting in Strasbourg, France.
• 28-09-2022 Our joint research proposal Catalyst Award (Academia Sinica of Taiwan - Healthy Longevity Grand Challenge Competition) with Dr. Yu-Sheng Lin from Southern Taiwan University of Science and technology has just been granted.
• 30-08-2022 NEL presented the paper and poster at the Photon 2022 Conference in Nottingham, UK.
• 21-03-2022 Our Royal Society Research Grant to fund equipment has just been granted, which is for a heated microscope stage to characterise materials properties of solar thermal absorbers.
• 01-03-2022 NEL welcomes its new PhD student: Miss Nadira Hameed.
• 23-02-2022 Check out our latest publication on Strongly Confining Light with Air-Mode Cavities in Inverse Rod-Connected Diamond Photonic Crystals.
• 22-09-2021 NEL has a fully funded PhD position available to study Artificially Nano-structured Materials for Three-dimensional Electrodes and Catalysts.
• 01-09-2021 NEL welcomes its new member: Dr. Mike Taverne.
• 04-06-2021 NEL has a Research Fellow position available in Experimental Nanophotonics.
• 10-03-2021 Our EPSRC New Investigator Award project 3D Nanophotonics in Artificially Structured Chalcogenide Materials has just been granted!
• 02-12-2019 NEL has a fully funded PhD position available to study 3D Nanophotonics in Artificially Structured Chalcogenide Materials