Nanophotonic Engineering Laboratory (NEL)
The Nanophotonic Engineering Laboratory (NEL), founded in September 2019 in the School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics at Northumbria University, provides an integrated research platform for quantum nanophotonic engineering and the creation of advanced multifunctional materials targeting quantum technologies, energy systems, and biomedical applications. All members of NEL are drawn from the Space Systems and Technology Research Group at the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre (NESST), ensuring tight integration between fundamental photonic materials research and space‑relevant systems engineering. This embedded structure enables rapid translation of nanophotonic innovations into resource‑constrained and space‑enabled technologies.
Events
Latest News
- 01-05-2026: Congratulations to Dr. Mike Taverne on the award of the EPSRC NESCA Innovation Launch-pad Fund for developing advanced 3D carbon electrodes for space and resource‑constrained electrolysis.
- 02-10-2025: Delighted to announce that our first collaborative paper on nano-mechanical sensing, titled “Two Dimensional-Material-Coated Microcantilevers for Enhanced Mass Sensing and Material Characterization”, has been accepted in Nanoscale. Huge thanks to everyone involved!
- 18-06-2025: Excited to share that our paper “Thermal Shrinkage-Induced Modifications in Photonic Band Gaps of Two-Photon Polymerized Bragg Reflectors” has been accepted in Advanced Photonics Research – grateful to all involved!
- 16-01-2025: Check out our latest publication on “Recent Advances in Surface Functionalized 3D Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting”.
- 25-11-2024: Our project, ‘HyMeta: Hyperuniform Disordered Metasurfaces for Selective Absorbers (EP/Y016440/1),’ has been shortlisted in the Energy and Environment category. NEL is honored to be part of this highly promising project and to collaborate with such an outstanding team.
- 01-10-2024: NEL welcomes its new PhD student: Mr. Owen Bell.
- 11-04-2024: Our EPSRC joint project (EP/Y016440/1) “Hyperuniform Disordered Metasurfaces for Selective Absorbers” has 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 September 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 (EP/Y003551/1) “Additive Micro/Nano-manufacturing of Structured Piezoelectric Active Materials for Intelligent Stent Monitoring” has just been granted!
- 26 – 30 June 2023 NEL will present the papers at the CLEO®/Europe-EQEC 2023 in Munich, Germany.
- 10-05-2023: Check out our latest publication on “Conformal CVD-grown MoS2 on Three-dimensional Woodpile Photonic Crystals for Photonic Bandgap Engineering”, ACS Applied Optical Materials.
- 29-05 to 02-06 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.