Dr SaeJune Park

Profile

More info can be found on the Park Lab website: parklab.uk 

I am an Assistant Professor (UK Lecturer) in Terahertz Electronics & the Head of the Terahertz Laboratory at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and a Professor, by courtesy, in the Department of Physics at Ajou University. I have published over 36 journal papers, 18 of which as first/corresponding author, and have citations over 1,300 and an h-index over 17 according to Google Scholar.

My PhD programme back in South Korea focused on developing dielectric/biological sensors in the THz frequency region using THz time-domain spectroscopy. One of my papers reported microbial sensing for the first time with THz metasurface. I also investigated perovskite’s crystallisation kinetics using THz spectroscopy and studied a phase transition of perovskite film with an abrupt switch in the growth dimensionality.

Then, I moved to the UK and took up a Research Fellow position at the University of Leeds (2018) where I expanded my expertise in on-chip THz spectroscopy. On-chip THz spectroscopy enables the examination of samples/systems with highly confined in-plane THz waves. I demonstrated on-chip THz tuneable plasmonic devices based on a two-dimensional electron gas channel. I also reported a novel technique to measure the THz permittivity of unknown dielectric materials even for an extremely small amount of specimens using resonators integrated with on-chip waveguides.

In 2021, I joined QMUL to lead the Terahertz Laboratory. Since then, I have been trying to integrate my experience in free-space THz spectroscopy into on-chip THz devices. For example, I reported a significant enhancement in fingerprint detection of an extremely small amount of lactose using on-chip THz devices. A meta-atom probe integrated with the on-chip THz waveguide was also developed to detect colorectal cancer. I am continuing to work on developing free-space THz applications as well and recently reported a study on selective detection of microplastic particles in water using surface-functionalised THz microfluidic metasurface.

Teaching

• ECS644U/752P Microwave and Millimetrewave Electronics (Module organiser)
• ECS431U Engineering Skills and Practice (Module co-organiser)

Research

Research Interests:

• Free-space/on-chip THz biosensors based on plasmonic/metamaterials
• Physics of low-dimensional materials in THz frequency range
• FEM/FDTD simulations
• More info can be found here: parklab.uk

Examples of research funding:

• [2024, PI] Research England QM International Science Partnership Fund Grant ~ £20k
• [2023, PI] EPSRC New Investigator Award ~ £562k (2024 - 2027)
• [2022, PI] EPSRC Travel Fund ~ £1k
• [2022, Co-I] Dstl EME Hub (Team – Electromagnetic Environment (EME) (emehub.org)) ~ £1.2M (2022 - 2027)