Dr Sang Soon Oh

(he/him)

MSc, PhD FHEA

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My research background is theoretical electromangetism in composite materials such as analytical and numerical modelling of chiral metamaterials, active metamaterials and graphene metamaterials. Current interest includes photonics topological insulators and chaotic semiconductor lasers. With the Rising Star felloswship funded by the Welsh goverement, I am focusing on delveloping a photonic topological insulator laser using III-V semiconductor nanowires.

• Sêr Cymu Rising Star fellowship, "Photonic Topological Insulator Semiconductor Laser and One-Way Photonics"  (The Welsh goverment and the ERDF, £983K, approx. 5 years from December 2017 to March 2023)

Currently I am leading a team of  and 3 PhD students (Ghada Alharbi, Kyle Netherwood, Ion Wood-thanan). Potential candidates for PhD studentships (EPSRC, other governement funded or self-funded etc.) and fellowships (Leverhulme fellowship, etc.) will be welcome to contact me.

Teaching

• PX2131: DMO of The Physics of Fields and Flows (22/23, 23/24)
• PX2231: DMO of Thermal and Statistical Physics (24/25)
• PX3248: DMO of Theoretical Physics (23/24)
• PX3249: MO of Statsitaical Mechansmics (24/25)
• PX4133: MO (23/24,24/25) and DMO (21/22, 22/23) of Modern Quantum Optics 

• PX3315: Supervisor of Physics Project for Year 3 undergraduate students on "Nanowire Quantum Emitters", "Hofstadter's butterfly in optical ring resonator" (2018-2025)

• Physics seminar organiser since 2018-2022. List of talks  

Biography

Sang Soon Oh received the PhD degree in Physics from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea (2007). Whie he is doing his PhD course, he visited University of St. Andrews (2004-2005). After working as a post-doctoral fellow at Electronics Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in South Korea (2007-2010), he joined the Department of Physics at University of Surrey, UK as a postdoc (2010) and then moved to Imperial College London to join the Condensed Matter Theory (CMTH) group in the Department of Physics and Optical Semiconductor Device (OSD) group in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department. In 2017, he joined the Institute for Compound Semiconductors at Cardiff University as a Sêr Cymru Rising Star Fellow.

• Guest editor of Special Issue: Selected Papers from Semiconductor and Integrated Optoelectronics (SIOE) 2019
• Reviewer in >40 journals including Nature, Nature Physics, Nature Nano, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Physical Reivew B, Physical Reivew E, Nano Letters, Light: Science and Applications, ACS Photonics, Scientific Reports, Optics Letters, Optics Express and Optics Communications
• Member of EPSRC UK Metamaterials Network (since March 2021)

Honours and awards

• Outstanding reviewer for Light: Science & Applications in 2022 and 2023

Professional memberships

• Member, The Korean Physical Society (2007-2010, 2022-)
• Member, METAMORPHOSE (2014-2015, 2022-)
• Member, OPTICA (2022-)
• Member, Institute of Physics (2023-)

Speaking engagements

1. "Bound-state-in-the-continuum modes in topological lasers and symmetry breaking of topological edge modes in nonlinear Su-Schrieffer-Heeger lattice", Engineering seminar, University of Exeter, 27 Nov 2024
2. "Delocalizing edge/corner modes by an imaginary gauge field in 1D/2D non-Hermitian photonic topological insulators and their spatio-temporal dynamics", PHHQP XXI, Χανιά, 25 Sep 2024
3. "Symmetry breaking of dyanmic topological edge modes in nonlinear Su-Schrieffer-Heeger lattice", International Conference on Quantum and Nonlinear Nanophotonics, Nottingham Trent University, 29 Aug 2024
4. “Non-abelian nodal lines and phase transition in photonic topological insulators,” Topological Physics in Condensed Matter workshop, Cardiff University, 12 April 2024.
5. “Topological edge and bulk lasing modes and their phase diagrams,” Topology Photonics and Beyond workshop, Tianjin, China, 29 January 2024
6. “Topological lasers and non-Hermitian photonics,” Physics Seminar, Newcastle University, 20 October 2023.
7. “Semiconductor nanowires for 1D and 2D topological lasers,” Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, 17 August 2023.
8. “Topological Lasers and Nodal Links in Photonic Crystals,” APRI (Advanced Photonics Research Institute), South Korea, 26 October 2022. 
9. “Topological lasers and nodal links in photonic crystals,” Department of Physics, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), South Korea, 25 October 2022.
10. “Non-Abelian Topology of Nodal Links in Photonic Crystals and Spring-Mass Systems,” Ulsan University, South Korea, 18 October 2022.
11. “Modelling Semiconductor Topological Lasers,” Bremen-Cardiff alliance “Semiconductor Physics” Online workshop, 24 January 2022.
12. “Non-Abelian Topology of Nodal Links in Photonic Crystals,” Electrical Engineering Colloquium, UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) (on zoom), 24 November 2021.
13. “Light-matter interaction in photonic topological insulators,” University of Fribourg & Adolphe Merkel Institute (on zoom), 24 June 2021.
14. “Photonic topological insulator design using finite-difference time-domain method,” ARCCA (Advanced Research Computing at Cardiff) research seminar, Cardiff University, 7 October 2020.
15. “Photonic topological insulator laser with MOCVD-grown semiconductor nanowire array: modelling, fabrication and characterization,” Cardiff-Bremen workshop, University of Bremen, Germany, 11-12 July. 2019.
16. “Topological edge modes in kagome lattice photonic crystals,” CINAP-IBS, SKKU, S. Korea, 27 June 2019.
17. “Topological edge modes in kagome lattice photonic crystals,” Invited seminar, Ajou University, S. Korea, S. Korea, 26 June 2019.
18. “Topological edge modes in kagome lattice photonic crystals,” Invited seminar, KRISS, Daejeon, S. Korea, 19 June 2019.
19. “Topological edge modes in kagome lattice photonic crystals,” IBS workshop: Recent Advances in Topological Photonics, Daejeon, S. Korea, 17-21 June 2019. Link to the webpage.
20. “Photonic Topological Insulators with Kagome Lattice,” Theoretical physics group seminar, Bristol University, United Kingdom, 6 Feb 2019.    ^* Invited by Professor Michael Berry
21. “Chiral Light-Matter Interaction in Dielectric Photonic Topological Insulators,” Invited seminar, Theoretical physics group seminar, Münster University, Germany, 7 Nov 2018.
22. “Electrically Tunable Chirality and Slow Light in Graphene Metamaterials,” Royal Microscopic Society workshop, Exeter, UK, 3 Apr 2018.
23. “Electrical control of optical chirality and nonlinear response in graphene metamateirals,” Invited seminar, Electrical Engineering department, KAIST, 1 Jul. 2016.
24. “Localized toroidal dipole moment of spoof surface plasmon polaritons,” Invited seminar, Kyungpook National University, South Korea, 27 Aug. 2015.
25. “Active Optical Metamaterials: From Loss-compensation to active chiral metamaterials,” Invited seminar, Korea University in South Korea, 24 June. 2014.
26. “Active Optical Metamaterials: From Loss-compensation to active chiral metamaterials,” Invited seminar, Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials in South Korea,17 June. 2014.
27. “Active Optical Metamaterials: From Loss-compensation to active chiral metamaterials,” Invited seminar, Electrical Telecommunications Research Institute in South Korea,17 June. 2014.
28. “Negative refraction and invisibility cloaking in metamaterials,” Korean postgraduate student’s CIONS (Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford Network with SPRU) meeting, Imperial College London, 26 Nov. 2011.
29. “Negative refractive index in 3D helix chiral metamaterial,” Invited seminar, Advanced Photonics Research Institute in South Korea, 26 Oct. 2011. 

Committees and reviewing

• Member, Exam board panel (since April 2024)
• Internal examiner for PhD vivas

1. Cobi Maynard, Cardiff University, "Simulation and Manufacture of Gallium Nitride Integrated Photonics", Jan 2025
2. Fwoziah Albeladi, Cardiff University, "Advancing Integrated Photonic Circuits: Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Key Photonic Components", July 2024 
3. Martina Recchia, Cardiff University, "Chemical sensing at the nanoscale: Local field enhanced coherent Raman scattering micro-spectroscopy near a plasmonic nano-antenna",  Mar 2024
4. Sam Bishop, Cardiff University, "Room Temperature III-Nitride Quantum Light Sources", Dec 2022
5. Sam Neale, Cardiff University, "Resonant-state expansion for periodic open optical systems", Mar 2021

• External examiner for PhD vivas

1. Cónal Murphy, University College Cork, "Predictive simulation and design of III-V heterostructures for light emission and detection", Mar 2025
2. Aresenios Gisdakis, University of Birmingham, "Coupling into bound surface waves and propagating radiation", Feb 2025
3. Jingyi Wu, Kings College London, "Controlling Light with Plasmonic Nanorod Metamaterials", Dec 2024
4. Jitong Wang, Univerisity College London, "Theoretical and computational investigation of active photonic nanodevices exploiting bound states in the continuum", May 2024
5. Wasem Aljuaid, Newcastle University, "Exploiting High-Index Dielectric Structures on Optical Fibres to Achieve High-Spatial Resolution via Photonic Nanojets", Mar 2024     
6. Joshua Feis, University of Oxford, "Topological Metamaterials for Engineering Applications", Dec 2023     
7. Iago Rodriguez Diez, University of Exeter, "Inverse Design of Whispering-Gallery Nanolasers with Tailored Beam Shape and Polarisation", Nov 2022     
8. Sunae So, POSTECH, S. Korea, "Inverse design of nanophotonic structures and devices using artificial intelligence", Dec 2021     
9. Rúben Azinheira Alvez, University of Birmingham, "Madelung Formalism Approach for Non-Local Nanoplamonics",Nov 2021     
10. Jack Kingsley-Smith, King’s College London, "Optical forces and torques for the levitation and manipulation of nanoparticles near surfaces and in complex beams", Aug 2021   

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of

• Topological physics (photonics, plasmonics)
• Theoretical electromagnetism (analytical and numerical modelling)
• Nonlinear and dynamic effects in semiconductor lasers (chaos, nonuniform gain effect)
• Modelling optical property of 2D materials

Currently I am supervising 3 research students as a main supervisor (see below) and 1 student (Amal Aldhubaib supervised by Haiyao Deng) as a cosupervisor. Former visiting PhD students: Jochen Bissinger from Technical University of Munich and Jan Olthaus from Münster University.

Alumni

Former postdocs:

• Dr Yongkang Gong  (Huawei)
• Dr Haedong Park (Corning Korea)
• Dr Ananya Ghatak (University of Crete)

Former PhD students:

• Dr Stephan Wong (Sandia National Laboratory)
• Dr Zeeshan Ahmad (Bentham Instruments Ltd.)
• Dr Joe Mahoney (Intellectural Property Office)
• Dr Shaikhah Almousa (King Saud University)

Current supervision

Ghada Alharbi

Kyle Netherwood

Ion Wood-Thanan

Past projects

Preivous PGR projects

• Stephan Wong, Exploration of novel topological lasing modes: their robustness and dynamics, 2018-2022
• Zeeshan Ahmad, Transverse-electric surface plasmon polaritons in homogeneous and periodic graphene systems,
  2018-2022
• Joe Mahoney, Design of Quantum Dot Eelectroabsorption Modulators for Next-Gen Data and Telecommunications 2019-2023
• Shaikhah Almousa, Exact theory and approximation for a resonator in a changing surrounding medium, 2019-2023

Current PGR projects

• Ghada Alharbi, Optical bistability in optical Kerr nonlinear topological insulators 2020-2024
• Kyle Netherwood, Creating an artificial optical material to filter single photon states for quantum technologies, 2023-2027
• Ion Wood-Thanan, Aperiodic quantum optical materials 2023-2027 (co-supervised by Felix Flicker in U. of Bristol)