The PhD thesis in Physics, developed at the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto, is entitled "Fiber Sensing Based on New Structures and Post-Processing Enhancement", and was supervised by Orlando Frazão and José Luís Santos, also members of CAP.

The prize, sponsored by the Portuguese Society for Optics and Photonics Research, is already on its fourth edition and is awarded to the best doctoral thesis in any of the fields of Optics and Photonics in Portugal.

In her PhD, Marta Ferreira developed different types of micro-sensors in optical fibre, based on interferometry, which led to the publication of about 10 papers in international journals with a high impact factor. One of the most relevant papers is “Towards the control of highly sensitive Fabry-Pérot strain sensor based on hollow-core ring photonic crystal fiber”, published in Optics Express, where the researcher demonstrates one of the most deformation-sensitive interferometers using technology already developed in the INESC TEC.

CAP focuses on Optoelectronics, mainly optical fibre technology. The researchers at the Centre conduct applied research and development in optical fibre sources, optical communications, sensors, and microfabrication (thin films and integrated optics).

The award will be presented at the AOP 2017 – 3^rd International Conference on Applications in Optics and Photonics, to be held in Algarve, Portugal, between 8 and 12 May 2017.

INESC TEC, November 2016