Light Times (Laser Special)

Issue 2 | 2010

Light Times

Celebrating 50 years of the laser and 25 years of the fibre laser.

Revolutionising communication : 50 years of the laser | page 4

History in the making – ORC draw first silica fibre in 4.5 years | page 6

The University of Southampton – Pioneers of the fibre laser | page 8

News from the Optoelectronics Research Centre – Laser Special

In this issueWelcome to our laser special edition of Light Times magazine. In this issue we have included two features based on the 50th anniversary of the first laser and the consequent work at the University of Southampton and the 25th anniversary of the fibre laser technology developed at Southampton.

In addition to all our laser features we have also included our regular features, highlighting research, academic and student success, industry news and a tour of our recently completed integrated photonics clean room facility.

To keep up-to-date with our latest news please visit: www.orc.soton.ac.uk/news.html

We welcome your feedback so please get in touch and let us know what you would like to see in future editions of light times.

Sarah [email protected]

2 Light Times | Laser Special

3

1

3

1 Revolutionising communications: 50 years of the laser

Celebrating the anniversary of the first laser and the consequent work at Southampton Page 4

2 History in the making – ORC draw first silica fibre in 4.5 years!

Read about our new 6 metre dual sided silica fibre drawing tower which is now in operation

Page 6

3 Light years ahead. Pioneering the fibre laser Marking 25 years of the fibre laser pioneered by Southampton researchers

Page 8

4 New class of lasers to be developed in collaboration with St Andrews

Highlighting new EPSRC funded research for developing the lasers of the future

Page 11

5 Fibre laser pioneer awarded for contributions to Industry

ORC Director, Professor David Payne has received the 2010 AILU award for his pioneering work with fibre lasers

Page 13

2

4

5Light Times | Laser Special

Many of the communications, manufacturing and transportation technologies that we take for granted today wouldn’t exist without the invention of the first laser 50 years ago.

The key technologies that drive today’s global communication via the internet were developed by researchers at the University of Southampton following the invention of the first working laser.

In May 1960, Theodore Maiman and his co-workers at Hughes Research Laboratories in California switched on a new invention – Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. It was the first example of a working LASER.

A massive outpouring of results worldwide followed as new laser materials and configurations were rapidly discovered. Work on lasers began at Southampton in 1961.

In 1966, Charles Kao (winner of the Nobel Prize in 2009), working at the Standard Telecom Laboratories in the UK, speculated that light could be transmitted over long distances via optical fibres. With fibre of the purest glass, it would be possible to transmit signals over 100 kilometres compared to the 20 metres achieved by fibres at that time.

Revolutionising communication: 50 years of the laser


Inspired by Kao’s discovery, researchers at Southampton began working on optical fibres with the aim of making long-distance light communication a practical reality. Research student David Payne designed and constructed a fibre tower that allowed the fine control of optical fibres drawn from a glass rod.

In 1975, Professor Alec Gambling and David Payne reported new techniques for fabricating fibres, a discovery that led to explosive growth in optical communications and the basis of optical fibres that underpin the internet.

Further research by David Payne and his colleagues resulted in the development of the first telecommunications optical amplifier, the erbium-doped fibre amplifier. This changed the world of telecommunications once again and allowed transmission of huge quantities of information over transatlantic distances, which we know today as the global internet.

Research into lasers and optical fibres continues at Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, under the directorship of Professor Payne.


Photographer Dr James Gates

History in the making – ORC draw first silica fibre in 4.5 years!

In April the ORC’s new 6 metre high dual sided silica drawing tower was put through its paces for the first time drawing fibre from a test perform. It’s been over four and a half years since a fibre has been drawn from a tower of this magnitude in the ORC. The fibre drawn symbolises a tremendous milestone in the multi-million pound Mountbatten rebuild project which is rapidly approaching completion.

Boasting a range of drawing speeds from 0.5m per minute up to 100m per minute, the new tower can draw fibres of 80

to 8000 in diameter from preform of up to 60mm in diameter and 1m in length. These capabilities allow for the fabrication of low-loss transmission fibre as well as the speciality fibres the ORC is renowned for.

The tower has a unique preform pressurisation and vacuum facility which allows the pressure within air-filled preforms to be accurately controlled and permitting the manipulation of the hole size and final wall thickness of the drawn glass to control the air-fraction in complex microstructured fibres.

Four and a half years after the Mountbatten fire tragically destroyed the ORC’s infamous fibre drawing tower the Centre is once again starting to draw silica fibre with a new state-of-the-art silica drawing tower.

The new tower is based on a similar design to the original tower which was designed and constructed by the ORC’s Director, Professor David Payne back in the 1960’s, when he was starting out as a PhD student at the University. The tower was in daily use from then right up until the fire in 2005 and had been sought after by the Science Museum in London thanks to its key role in the development of the optical fibres used today to underpin the internet.

Experimental Officer Andy Webb drawing the first fibre (Photographer Andy Vowles)6 Light Times | Laser Special

Providing light and education in IndiaIn celebration of the 50th anniversary of the laser, a new outreach project has been set up by a group of students at the ORC to help educate underprivileged communities in India about the science of light and provide them with energy efficient lamps.

To coincide with the laser anniversary, the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America have partnered to sponsor a year-long celebration – LaserFest – to highlight the importance of lasers and to illustrate how basic scientific research can impact the modern world. Laserfest on the road has been set up as part of the celebrations to fund a number of laser-related outreach projects.

SimpliPhy: Simply Physics in India, set up by Nikita Daga, a PhD student at the ORC, has received over US$8K of funding through the Laserfest on the road scheme as well as an additional £500 donated by the OSA student chapter at Southampton.

The objective of outreach project SimpliPhy is to establish a sustainable outreach programme that reaches out to underprivileged and underrepresented communities in India.

Nikita, along with fellow students Mridu Kalita and Mohammed Belal will use the successful model of the ORC’s award winning UK outreach programme – the Lightwave Roadshow. They will take a set of hands-on optics and laser activities to local schools and disadvantaged areas in central and northern areas of India.

The team will work to build relationships between Indian Universities and their

local schools to create a network of volunteers who can continue the work of the project once the team return to the UK.

In addition to educating children and families the team will also provide light in the form of LED lamps, to replace the kerosene lamps currently used. The lamps symbolise photonics technology making a positive difference, they will help to both lower the health risks associated with kerosene lamps and to reduce the carbon footprint of those who use them.

Nikita also hopes to highlight the fact that science can bridge social divides in regards to religious tolerance and gender equality. The team represents Hindus and Muslims working together sharing an enthusiasm for optics education and outreach and as a female scientist Nikita will also act as a role model for aspiring girls wanting to pursue a career in science.

Nikita comments “I am delighted to have received the funding for the outreach activities in India. It was through an outreach activity at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, India, that I motivated myself to pursue a career in Physics and I am really happy to have this opportunity to give back and hopefully motivate others.”

Two international collaborations on metamaterialsThe Southampton Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, based at the ORC, has recently entered two major new collaborative research projects in the USA and Australia.

The Southampton Centre is multidisciplinary, involving other key departments from within the University and is sponsored by the EPSRC Programme on Nanostructured Photonic Metamaterials.

The Centre will work with 22 partners as part of the new Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS-2) headed by the University of Sydney and funded by the Australian Research Council to the tune of AUS$23M over the next seven years.

The second collaboration is funded by the Office of Naval Research, US Department of Defence, which will invest $7.5M over the next five years for the development of Large-Area 3D Optical Metamaterials with Tunability and Low Loss. This Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) will see the Southampton Centre for Photonic Metamaterials working in collaboration with the Universities of Pennsylvania, Texas, Purdue, North Eastern, and Harvard.

ORC Deputy Director and Head of the Metamaterials Programme, Professor Nikolay Zheludev comments, “These are important international research alliances with top research groups in major economies.”

7Light Times | Laser SpecialNikita, Belal and Mridu demonstrating a plasma ball (Photographer Andy Vowles)

The Southampton Centre for Photonic Metamaterials research team and the University Vice Chancellor Professor

Don Nutbeam. (Photographer Andy Vowles)

The fibre laser was “born” following the development of the optical telecoms fibre amplifier by David Payne and his team in 1985. Its origins lie in the same silica fibre that powers the internet, and when it was first unveiled, its revolutionary technology was regarded as being 15 years ahead of its time.

Today, fibre lasers are used widely in telecommunications, manufacturing, medicine and science. The technology has multiple applications worldwide, ranging from cutting steel, making cars and date-stamping fruit, to clearing landmines. It is also used daily by those of us working online for amplifying signals on the web.

“The fibre laser challenges views on how to make things, how to repair things, and how to destroy things,” says David, now Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre. “It is changing every industry and discipline it encounters.”

The strengths of fibre lasers lie in their stability, their beam quality, and the fact that they can achieve very high levels of power. They are also far more efficient than other lasers in their use of energy.

Looking ahead to the next 50 years, our researchers will show how laser technology can be applied to new challenges, such as healthcare diagnostics and treatment, increasing internet capacity and creating renewable energy sources.

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the laser and also the 25th anniversary of the fibre laser, pioneered at the University of Southampton in the 1980s when our scientists integrated lasers into optical fibres.


Light years ahead. Pioneering the fibre laser

The FEMTOPRINT (femtosecond laser printer for glass microsystems with nanoscale features) project has received an investment of almost 2.5M Euros from the EU with the aim of developing a compact 3D printer that will provide users with a cost effective method of producing their own microsystems from glass for use in research, academia and industry.

The project headed by Eindhoven University of Technology will combine the expertise and facilities of research teams from the UK, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Professor Peter Kazansky will head the UK team at the ORC. His team together with Eindhoven University of Technology and Alphanov (France) will concentrate on the optimization of the material processing parameters of the laser designed for this project.

Basing their investigations on recent discoveries of new ultrafast phenomena, such as self-assembled nanostructuring and quill writing effects, the team will look at the interaction of ultrashort light pulses with transparent materials.

Investigations will be focused on fused silica glass as it is a unique material with an unrivalled combination of purity, high temperature resistance, optical transparency, chemical inertness and

extraordinary properties such as the formation of self-organized nanogratings in the ultrashort pulse irradiated region.

Other materials the team will investigate include: borosilicate glasses, sapphire and polymers which are of particular interest in a number of applications from biology to photonics.

The project partners from Amplitude Systems (France) will investigate other aspects of the project with the aim of reducing the femtosecond laser for glass micro and nano manufacturing to the size of a shoebox by 2015. The other collaborators, including Quintenz Kurt (Germany), Mecartex, CSEM, EPFL (Switzerland) will develop advanced electronics and optomechanical components for the 3D Femtoprinter.

The partners hope that this project will bring the femtoprint laser to market through the creation of a consortium spin-out. A diverse range of industrial sectors are expected to profit from this development and there is great potential for economic gains as well.

Professor Kazansky comments: “This project provides a unique opportunity to implement our expertise in fundamental research on light-matter interactions for the development of a high end commercial product”.

Developing the laser sources of the futureAlthough lasers have the unique capability to deliver light across a wide range of wavelengths or colours, laser imaging doesn’t currently extend into the mid-infra red regions. New research at the ORC hopes to extend the capabilities of the laser to include this range.

Senior Research Fellow, Dr Jonathan Price, will work on developing more practical laser sources for the future following a £100K investment from the EPSRC.

Light in the mid-IR range, may not be visible to the human eye, but it could provide practical assistance in a similar way to night vision-objects can be analysed by the light they can absorb, and the specific colours enable identification of different molecules by their absorption “signatures”.

Jonathan will develop a pulsed laser system using novel glasses that have emerged from ORC research along with new microstructured fibre technology to optimise the spectral range generation.

It is hoped that this work will improve understanding of fibre-based mid-IR continuum generation. From an experimental perspective it will probe the nonlinear and damage characteristics of the fibres using a range of pulse durations. Once this stage of work is complete the technology should enable collaboration with other ORC researchers working on the potential applications for this wavelength.

Jonathan comments: “I am delighted that the EPSRC are supporting this research to create brighter sources for the wide range of sensing and imaging applications in the mid-IR. The research builds on the ORC’s world-leading capabilities and will use fibres from the state-of-the-art facilities in the Mountbatten building. ”

3D laser printer to be developed through EU funded projectA new EU funded research project is set to bring nanoscale manufacturing to the desktop with the development of a 3D laser printer.


ORC Light logo imprinted by femtosecond-laser self-assembled nanostructures in silica glass

New class of lasers to be developed in collaboration with St AndrewsA new class of laser capable of producing more than a billion, high-power, ultrashort pulses of light per second with a footprint of just a few square centimetres is set to be developed through a collaborative research project between the ORC and the University of St Andrews.

Funded by an £800K grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council the researchers will develop a new class of ultrafast laser based on planar waveguides to fill the gap between high repetition rate, low power semiconductor lasers and high power, low repetition rate bulk lasers.

The new laser will be compact and efficient with potential applications such as microscopy of biological cells where the high repetition rate will allow strong optical signals to be produced without damaging the specimens under study.

The research teams from the ORC and St Andrews, headed by Professor David Shepherd and Dr Tom Brown

respectively, will work in conjunction with three external organisations who will help to guide the research to achieve impact in a number of application areas.

The new multi-million pound Mountbatten research facilities at Southampton will play a key part in the development of the new lasers, relying on the state-of-the-art etching and fabrication facilities.

Professor David Shepherd, ORC, comments: “I’m really excited to receive this funding from EPSRC as not only will it lead to a great new research direction with strong potential applications, but it will also enable a strong collaboration with researchers at St Andrews that I hope will grow beyond this project.”

11Neighbourhood News | Autumn 2010

Professor Rob Eason won over the EPSRC ‘dragons’ at a ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch for investment, receiving a Bright IDEAS award of almost £190K for research in nanoparticle fabrication techniques.

Bright IDEAS awards are intended to support genuinely novel and potentially transformative research activities. Applicants had to write a pre-pitch application and those who passed this hurdle were then invited to pitch to the EPSRC pitch panel or ‘dragons’, a team of five comprising three academics, and two venture capitalists.

The project – Nanoparticles On demand Via multiphoton Absorption (NOVA): the practical nanoparticle-making machine – caught the attention of the ‘dragons’ and will be funded for 18 months.

Rob will focus on developing a processing technique that will allow nanoscale materials to be generated from starting precursor liquids

or gases. Using the process of multiphoton absorption of high power pulsed laser sources, such a technique, he believes, should now be possible.

If successful, his research will lead to controllable nanoparticles on demand, and 3-d nano-sculpting in whatever material you can produce from decomposition of the original liquid or gas precursor.

After the pitch interview, Rob commented that this new style of deciding on funding outcome was ‘certainly different from the normal submission process’. He had heard of the dragon’s den programme on television, but had never actually watched an episode. ‘Maybe this helped me’, he added, ‘as I really didn’t know what to expect’.

A 6 month video update of this project will published on YouTube over the summer.

Professor Eason wins over EPSRC ‘Dragons’

Research Highlights:


Kate Sloyan working in the pulsed laser deposition lab

12

Awards News:

The Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development awarded to Radan is part of the ‘people’ specific programme of the EU Seventh Framework Programme which is entirely dedicated to human resources in research. The fellowships are intended to support experienced researchers in complementing or acquiring new skills and competencies.

The fellowship will help Radan to pursue his latest research in terabit optical processing. His project Terabit Optical Processing using Comb Locked Amplified Signal Synthesis (TOP CLASS) will investigate coherent synthesis of high-purity arbitrary optical waveforms at very high repetition rates.

The project will consider a new approach to realise a high performance optical signal synthesizer based on the coherent superposition of multiple, phase locked lasers operating at spectrally-distant optical frequencies. Radan hopes to demonstrate the potential of this approach in a number of demanding

telecom-based optical signal processing applications and explore other uses of the synthesiser in areas such as THZ photonics, sensing and metrology.

On receiving news of the fellowship Radan commented: “I am delighted at the news I have been awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship – this will provide me with a secure position for the next two years and will allow me to pursue a new area of research that I am extremely keen to explore. I believe that the technology I will develop will open up a number of new photonics applications and I cannot wait to get started on the project!”

ORC Deputy Director Professor David Richardson commented: “The competition for Marie Curie Fellowships is intense and it is a great achievement for Radan to have won one. Optical signal synthesis is a very topical and potentially very important area and we fully expect Radan’s work to impact a number of the ORC’s key research areas – we are very excited by the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Marie Curie fellowship grant for ORC research fellowORC Research Fellow, Dr Radan Slavik, has recently been awarded a prestigious Marie Curie fellowship by the European Union.

Senior Research Fellow announced as Outstanding RefereeORC Senior Research Fellow, Dr Peter Horak, has been announced as a 2010 Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society (APS).

Initiated in 2008, the Outstanding Referee program annually recognises scientists, whose efforts in peer review have helped to keep the standards of the APS journals Physical Review and Physical Review Letters high. In many cases the referees often help authors to improve the quality and readability of their articles.

150 referees are selected each year based on the number, quality and timeliness of referee reports. Winners of this lifetime award each receive a certificate and a lapel pin.

Peter leads the Computational nonlinear optics group at the ORC and has a strong background in quantum optics, nonlinear optics, and numerical modelling. His recent work includes RGB and supercontinuum generation in microstructured fibres, optical micro-resonator sensors, applications of coherent and incoherent amplifiers in optical telecommunication, and the interaction of nanoparticles with microstructured surfaces.

Peter comments: “Reviewing articles for scientific journals is often challenging and time consuming but is rarely recognised. So I feel very honoured by this award of the APS, the publisher of some of the leading journals in physics.”

12 Light Times | Laser Special Dr Radan Slavik (Photographer Andy Vowles)

Fibre laser pioneer awarded for contributions to IndustryFibre laser pioneer Professor David Payne has been announced as the 2010 winner of the AILU (Association of Laser Users) Award.

The accolade, given annually, recognises his important contributions in the development of industrial laser materials processing in the UK through his innovative work in fibre lasers.

The fibre laser was born out of the revolutionary optical telecoms fibre amplifier developed by David. Patented by the University in 1985, the invention is regarded as being 15 years ahead of its time. Today the technology is widely used across manufacturing sectors worldwide, thanks to its ability to weld, cut and mark materials including inch-thick steel.

Professor Payne, now Director of the ORC, went on to commercialise research in fibre lasers through the formation of spin-out company SPI Lasers, which was sold to Trumpf for $40m in 2008.

Professor Payne comments: “The ultimate test of research quality is in the market place – has your work made a difference?

“The AILU award for an outstanding contribution to the industrial use of lasers confirms the real-world importance of our work and makes me very proud. The award endorses our support of industry and our focus on manufacturing as a key area for photonics.”

Fibre lasers are highly efficient as they convert around 70 to 80 percent of the power originally put in by a pump source, unlike traditional lasers which only convert a small percentage. They have very high beam stability, and maintenance is minimal since no realignment or cleaning of components is necessary, making them ideal for use in manufacturing.

The combination of small-size, maintenance-free operation, thermal and electrical efficiency combined with outstanding beam quality has made the fibre laser a huge success and an attractive alternative to traditional lasers.

RAEng Fellowship for investigating the networks of the future Dr Francesca Parmigiani, a research fellow, at the ORC, has recently been awarded a fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering to support her research into the future generations of optical networks.

With traffic on the global communications infrastructure increasing by about 60% every year, driven by rapidly expanding and increasingly demanding methods of communication and services, the development of energy efficient, ultra-high capacity communication networks is one of the most important challenges facing modern society.

Francesca’s proposed project “Optical processing of high spectral efficiency phase encoded signal for future generation optical networks.” will tackle this looming problem of internet gridlock that’s facing society with the continuous introduction of bandwidth-hungry services.

Over the next five years Francesca will study and develop key technologies and concepts required for ultrafast all-optical signal processing of spectrally efficient phase-encoded high-speed communication signals to help realise the high spectral efficiency, environmentally friendly, multi-terabit networks of the future.

Francesca comments: “I am honoured to receive this fellowship – it’s an excellent accolade to have. This fellowship provides me with the freedom and independence to work on my own project researching the future of an area that I am really passionate about.”

13Light Times | Laser SpecialORC Director, Professor David Payne

Dr Francesca Parmigiani (Photographer Andy Vowles)

Celebrating success: Graduation 2010

Over half of those graduating this year faced the trauma of losing their research and facilities in the Mountbatten fire of 2005, against all the odds and with much determination they all managed to get back on track to complete their studies.

Congratulations to: Daniel Friedrich, Chris Holmes, Ping Hua, Huw Major, Ben Mills, Trina Ng, Eric Plum, Alex Schwanecke, Everardo Vargas-Rodríguez and Nathasha Vukovic.

10 ORC Graduands took to the platform at this year’s Graduation Ceremony, led by Dame Valerie Strachan in the Turner Sims Concert Hall.

Student Success:

Four of Britain’s future photonics researchers were given the opportunity to promote their research to members of parliament at the SET for Britain event at the House of Commons earlier this year.

Early career photonics researchers, based at the ORC; Behrad Gholipour,Christopher Holmes, Richard Parker and Giorgio Adamo presented their latest research in the fields of chalcogenide glasses, planar optical materials and nanophotonic metamaterials.

The next energy revolution was illustrated by Behrad, a first year PhD student. His current research in chalcogenide glasses with Professor Dan Hewak could potentially allow the realisation of solar cells that work both in sunlight and in the dark as well as a system of producing electricity from the heat dissipated

from households to cars and jet engines.

Christopher, who was awarded a PhD plus award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in 2009, presented his pioneering work on the fabrication of optical devices using an ultra-precision micromachining technique – a new avenue of optical material processing, allowing rapid prototyping of miniaturised health care diagnostic systems.

Richard has also recently been awarded a PhD plus for his joint research with the School of Chemistry. He presented his research in optofluidic sensors for chemical detection. Sensors play an essential role in modern life, monitoring industrial processes and environmental change to detecting pathogens and biomedical diagnosis.

Integrated optical devices miniaturise and integrate multiple optical functions within a single smart device, while microfluidics enables small scale fluid control and analysis. The combination of these to form “lab-on-a-chip” optofluidic devices is an emerging technology that is changing the future of sensor design.

The future advancement of technology will depend critically on miniaturization of devices, Giorgio Adamo’s research in this area was highlighted through his poster “Light-well: a tunable nanoscale free-electron light source on a chip.”

SET for Britain is an annual poster exhibition organised to encourage, support and promote Britain’s early-stage and early-career research scientists engineers and technologists.

Westminster unveil Britain’s future photonics researchers

We wish all our graduates the best of luck for the future.


Industry News:

Following substantially increased interest in its SpectroSens optical microchip platform technology, ORC spinout, Stratophase – a specialist in real-time chemical and biochemical measurement and detection – has doubled its sensor chip manufacturing capability and moved to a larger site. Three times larger than the old building, Stratophase’s new facility has been fitted with offices, meeting rooms and high tech laboratory space, and has the capacity to expand further with minimal disruption.

Bringing together proven science from the telecoms, optics and biotech industries, the SpectroSens technology is being developed for a number of applications in industrial process measurement and biodetection. The new facility means that Stratophase can more easily respond to different application requirements, by expanding the facilities for implementing and testing new optical measurement techniques on its sensor chips, as well as the systems required to use these chips. New high-tech lab space includes a dedicated Category 2 Biological

Containment Laboratory and a Customer Applications Laboratory.

The new labs allow Stratophase to functionalise immunoassays on sensor chips for biodetection applications, as well as test monitoring systems for industrial processing applications such as biorefining and the production of biofuels, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals.

“Over the last few years, Stratophase has been successfully applying its platform sensing technology in a range of markets” said Dr Richard Williams, Stratophase’s CEO. “Our new facilities give us the infrastructure required to develop core IP, as well as space for the application and product development activities required to service nearer-term customer requirements. Hand-in-hand with the new facilities, we are undertaking a significant recruitment drive to support and manage this growth.”

Stratophase was spun out of the ORC in 2003, for more information about the company please visit: www.stratophase.com

ORC spinout Stratophase move to larger facility

Unveiling the future: ORC Industry DayThe ORC held a highly successful Industry Day earlier this year to introduce the UK photonics industry to the new EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Photonics and the state-of-the-art research facilities in the new Mountbatten building.

Over 90 people attended this year’s event including some of the key players in the photonics industry from across the UK.

The day featured both presentations and tours of the Centre and the new research facilities in the Mountbatten building. A poster session and further presentations provided an insight into the current research developments and the direction of future research in the ORC focusing on areas of telecoms, sensing, lasers and nanostructured photonic metamaterials.

An initial 13 industry partners have signed up to work with the new centre. Fianium, Fiber logix, Gooch & Housego, Optek Systems, SPI Lasers and Stratophase all exhibited on the day alongside the poster session providing the opportunity to find out more about the Centre and working with the ORC from an industry prospective.

If you would like to be notified of future events please email: [email protected] and request to be added to our distribution list.


Stratophase application lab

Tour the integrated photonics facility

OPT Plasmalab 80 Plus Reactive Ion Etcher

Parallel plate RF etcher for glass etching primarily using SF6 and CHF3. Can also be used for ashing using O2.

Wet Benches for Chemical Processing

Used mainly for cleaning and etching a wide range of materials using organic solvents and acids such as hydrofluoric acid, fuming nitric acid, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid and acetic acid, mixtures such as “piranha” and etchants for gold, chromium, titanium, aluminium, silica and silicon (KOH).

The integrated photonics facility is housed in a 200m2 Class 1000 clean room designed for planar processing of a very wide range of materials. The prime purpose of this facility is to be able to take raw materials, ORC-made materials, or commercial materials and process them to realise photonic devices for use in applications from telecommunications to all-optical data processing and from biochemical sensing to the lab-on-a-chip. Key capabilities include double-sided photolithography on samples up

to 100mm and with resolution below 1 , thin film deposition of dielectrics and metals by sputtering, ion-beam deposition, thermal and e-beam evaporation, reactive ion etching reactive ion beam etching and wet etching, annealing and diffusion at temperatures up to 2300oC. We have recently installed a dip-pen nanolithography system capable of writing features down to 10nm. Characterisation includes stylus and optical profilometry, optical and scanning electron microscopy, and impedance spectroscopy.

Using the integrated photonics facility The integrated photonics facility can be commissioned on a daily basis in order to assist your particular line of research. Whether you are a member of the ORC, a member of another department within this or another university, or even a scientist from industry or other research establishment, you are welcome to make use of the facility. Moreover, we are keen to establish collaborations with other experimentalists.

For more information please contact Professor James Wilkinson: [email protected]

Lab in focus:

Karl-Suss MA6 double-sided mask aligner

Allows printing of structures on flat substrates by replication of a mask using photoresist exposure and development followed by etching, for example. Feature sizes below 1 micron may be replicated over wafers up to 100mm diameter. Double-sided aligning allows alignment of features on both sides of a silicon wafer.


KLA Tencor P-16 Stylus Profiler

For 3D mapping of surface morphology of devices, for example to measure the depth of an etched structure or the thickness of a thin film. Brief specifications are vertical range of 300 over a maximum horizontal scan length of 80mm with height resolution of about 1nm. 2 diameter stylus tip with forces between 1 mg and 50 mg. Surface roughness, waviness and stress measurement.

Nikon LV100D Optical Microscope

For inspection of devices, with illumination from above and below, dark field and brightfield modes, polarisation and DIC Nomarski filters and computer interface for image collection, manipulation and feature size measurement.

Instron 600°C Ion-Exchange Furnaces

Fan-assisted high thermal stability environmental oven. Fully programmable control of ramp rates and dwells. Used for diffusion into glass from salt melts such as KNO3 for fabrication of optical devices, but also for routine annealing.

Severn (STS) 1200°C and 1700°C Tube Furnace

Diffusion and annealing in argon, oxygen or nitrogen. Used for realising titanium-diffused waveguides in lithium niobate, for example.

Edwards Auto 306 thermal evaporators

Two thermal evaporators are available for routine thin film deposition, particularly of metals such as aluminium, chromium, gold, silver, nichrome, neodymium and erbium but also indium tin oxide, fluoropolymers and magnesium fluoride, for example.

Materials Research 2300°C Furnace

High temperature diffusion and annealing furnace, up to 2300°C in vacuum, argon or nitrogen, and up to 1700°C in oxygen. Maximum ramp rate is 50°C/min. The sample size can be up to 75mm diameter x 75mm high. Used primarily for diffusion in sapphire.

OPT Plasmalab 400 Sputtering Machine

Allows RF magnetron sputter deposition of dielectrics and metals in inert or reactive environments. Two 150mm diameter magnetrons yield good uniformity over a 100mm wafer. Materials such as silica, germania-doped silica, alumina and tantalum pentoxide are routinely deposited. An additional Kurt Lesker Nano 3 sputterer is available for novel glass films.

Karl-Suss MA6 double-sided mask aligner

Allows printing of structures on flat substrates by replication of a mask using photoresist exposure and development followed by etching, for example. Feature sizes below 1 micron may be replicated over wafers up to 100mm diameter. Double-sided aligning allows alignment of features on both sides of a silicon wafer.

Ionfab 300 Plus Reactive Ion Beam Deposit/Etcher

Allows ion-beam milling of materials to produce etched structures following photolithography, for example. May also be used for reactive or chemically-assisted ion-beam etching, and for ion-beam deposition of materials from a target.

Edwards Auto 500 electron beam evaporator

Used for deposition of materials such as chromium, gold, aluminium, titanium, nickel, nichrome, silica, and cobalt.


The ORC maintains a searchable database of all printed and presented papers. A number of papers are available to download. To find out more please visit:www.orc.soton.ac.uk/publications.html

52 ORC papers have been published in the following journals so far this year:

Applied Optics

S.Yoo, C.Codemard, Y.Jeong, J.K.Sahu, J.NIlsson Analysis and

optimization of acoustic speed profiles with large transverse variations

for mitigation of stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers. Applied Optics 2010 Vol.49 pp.1388-1399

Applied Physics Letters

T.S.Kao, F.M.Huang, Y.Chen, E.T.F.Rogers, N.I.Zheludev Metamaterial as a controllable template for nanoscale field localization.

Applied Physics Letters 2010 Vol.96 pp.041103

L.Lagonigro, N.Healy, J.R.Sparks, N.F.Baril, P.J.A.Sazio, J.V.Badding, A.C.Peacock Low loss silicon fibers for

photonics applications.


Z.L.Samson, K.F.MacDonald, F.De Angelis, B.Gholipour, K.Knight, C.C.Huang, E.Di Fabrizio, D.W.Hewak, N.I.Zheludev Metamaterial electro-optic switch of nanoscale thicknes.


Electronics Letters

S.Yoo, A.J.Boyland, R.J.Standish, J.K.Sahu Measurement

of photodarkening in Yb-doped aluminosilicate fibres

at elevated temperature.

Electronics Letters 2010 Vol.46 pp.233-234 R.M.Parker, J.C.Gates, Grossel. M.C., P.G.R.Smith Athermal

planar Bragg grating device for integrated photonic networks.

Electronics Letters 2010 Vol.46(5) pp.358-359

Frontiers in Optoelectronics in China

G.Brambilla, Y.Jung, F.Renna Optical fiber microwires and

nanowires manufactured by modified flame brushing technique:

properties and applications.

Frontiers in Optoelectronics in China 2010 Vol.3(1) pp.61-66

Journal papers published in 2010


IEEE Photonics Technology Letters

A.Camerlingo, F.Parmigiani, X.Feng, F.Poletti, P.Horak, W.H.Loh, D.J.Richardson, P.Petropoulos Multichannel

wavelength conversion of 40-Gb/s nonreturn-to=zero DPSK signals

in a lead-silicate fiber.

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters 2010 Vol.22(15) pp.1153-1155

K.K.Chen, S.-U.Alam, J.R.Hayes, H.J.Baker, D.Hall, R.McBride, J.H.V.Price, D.Lin, A.Malinowski, D.J.Richardson 56W frequency

doubled source at 530 nm pumped by a single-mode single-polarization

picosecond Yb3+-doped fiber MOPA. Photonics Technology Letters 2010 Vol.22(12) pp.893-895

A.Camerlingo, F.Parmigiani, X.Feng, F.Poletti, P.Horak, W.H.Loh, D.J.Richardson, P.Petropoulos Wavelength conversion

in a short length of a solid lead-silicate fibre.

Photonics Technology Letters 2010 Vol.22(9) pp.628-630

F.Xu, G.Brambilla, J.Feng, Y.-Q.Lu A microfiber Bragg grating

based on a microstructured rod: A proposal.

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters 2010 Vol.22(4) pp.218-220

Journal of Applied Physics

G.S.Murugan, Y.Panitchob, E.J.Tull, P.N.Bartlett, D.W.Hewak, M.N.Zervas, J.S.Wilkinson Position-dependent coupling between

a channel waveguide and a distorted microsphere resonator. Journal of Applied Physics 2010 Vol.107 pp.053105

Journal of Lightwave Technology

J.Ji, C.A.Codemard, J.Nilsson Analysis of spectral bendloss filtering

in a cladding-pumped W-type fiber Raman amplifier.

Journal of Lightwave Technology 2010 Vol.28(15) pp.2179-2186

L.Provost, C.Finot, P.Petropoulos, D.J.Richardson A 2R Mamyshev

regeneration architecture based on a three-fiber arrangement. Journal of Lightwave Technology 2010 Vol.28(9) pp.1373-1379

G.Zarris, E.Hugues-Salas, N.Amaya-Gonzalez, R.Weerasuriya, F.Pamigiani, D.Hillerkuss, P.Vorreau, M.Spyropoulou, S.K.Ibrahim, A.D.Ellis, R.Morais, P.Monteiro, P.Petropoulos,

D.J.Richardson, I.Tomkos, J.Leuthold, D.Simeonidou Field

experiments with a grooming switch for OTDM meshed networking. IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology 2010 Vol.28(4) pp.316-327

Journal of Optics

N.I.Zheludev, Changes to the journal. Journal of Optics 2010

Vol.12(010201) G.Brambilla, Optical fibre nanowires and

microwires: a review. Journal of Optics 2010 Vol.12 pp.043001

G.Adamo, K.F.MacDonald, Y.H.Fu, D.P.Tsai, F.J.Garcia de Abajo, N.I.Zheludev Tuneable electron-beam-driven nanoscale light source.

Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics 2010 Vol.12(2) pp.024012

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

K.Pechstedt, T.Whittle, J.J.Baumberg, T.Melvin Photoluminescence of colloidal CdSe/ZnS quantum dots: the critical

effect of water. J. Phys. Chem C 2010 Vol.114 pp.12069-12077

Laser Physics

M.Zhou, B.X.Yan, G.Bao, Y.Zhang, C.B.E.Gawith, D.D.Wang , Y.Qi, Y.Bi 52% optical-to-optical conversion efficiency in a compact

1.5W 532nm second harmonic generation laser with intracavity

periodically-poled MgO:LiNbO3. Laser Physics 2010 Vol.20(7) pp.1-4

Measurement Science and Technology

M.Belal, Y.T.Cho, M.Ibsen, T.P.Newson A temperature-

compensated high spatial resolution distributed strain sensor.

Measurement Science and Technology 2010 Vol.21(1)

Optical Engineering

C. Holmes Strain tuning of a composite silica-on-silicon direct UV

written planar Bragg grating. Optical Engineering 2010 Vol.49(04) pp.044601 1-4



Optics Express

P.Mehta, N.Healy, N.F.Baril, P.J.A.Sazio, J.V.Badding, A.C.Peacock Nonlinear transmission properties of hydrogenated

amorphous silicon core optical fibers.

Optics Express 2010 Vol.18(16) pp.16826-16831

R.T.Chapman, T.J.Butcher, P.Horak, F.Poletti, J.G.Frey, W.SBrocklesby Modal effects on pump-pulse propagation

in an Ar-filled capillary.

Optics Express 2010 Vol.18 pp.13279-13284

K.K.Chen, J.H.V.Price, S.-U.Alam, J.R.Hayes, D.Lin, A.Malinowski, D.J.Richardson Polarisation maintaining 100-W Yb-

fiber MOPA producing micro-J pulses tunable in duration from 1-21 ps. Optics Express 2010 Vol.18(14) pp.14385-14394

A.Camerlingo, X.Feng, F.Poletti, G.M.Ponzo, F.Parmigiani, P.Horak, M.N.Petrovich, P.Petropoulos, W.H.Loh, D.J.Richardson Near-zero dispersion, highly nonlinear lead silicate

W-type fiber for applications at 1.55μm.


K.J.Lee, S.Liu, F.Parmigiani, M.Ibsen, P.Petropoulos, K.Gallo, D.J.Richardson OTDM to WDM format conversion based on quadratic

cascading in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide. Optics Express 2010 Vol.18(10) pp.10282-10288

C.Y.J.Ying, C.L.Sones, A.C.Peacock, F.Johann, E.Soergel, R.W.Eason, M.N.Zervas, S.Mailis Ultra-smooth lithium niobate

photonic micro-structures by surface tension reshaping. Optics Express 2010 Vol.18(11) pp.11508-11513

R.Singh, E.Plum, W.Zhang, N.I.Zheludev Highly tunable optical

activity in planar achiral terahertz metamaterials.

Optics Express 2010 Vol.18(13) pp.13425

N.Papasimakis, Z.Luo, Z.X.Shen, F.De Angelis, E.Di Fabrizio, A.E.Nikolaenko, N.I.Zheludev Graphene in a photonic metamaterial.


V.K.Tikhomirov, G.Adamo, A.E.Nikolaenko, V.D.Rodriguez, P.Gredin, M.Mortier, N.I.Zheludev, V.V.Moshchalkov Cathodo- and photoluminescence in Yb3+-Er3+ co-doped

PbF2 nanoparticles.


N.Healy, J.R.Sparks, P.J.A.Sazio, J.V.Badding, A.C.Peacock Tapered silicon optical fibers.


M.P.Kalita, S.-U.Alam, C.Codemard, S.Yoo, A.J.Boyland, M.Ibsen, J.K.Sahu Multi-watts narrow-linewidth all fiber

Yb-doped laser operating at 1179 nm.

Optics Express 2010 Vol.18 pp.5920-5925

K.K.Chen, S.-U.Alam, J.H.V.Price, J.R.Hayes, D.Lin, A.Malinowski, C.Codemard, D.Ghosh, M.Pal, S.K.Bhadra, D.J.Richardson Picosecond fiber MOPA pumped supercontinuum

source with 39 W output power.


F.Kienle, K.K.Chen, S.-U.Alam, C.B.E.Gawith, J.I.Mackenzie, D.C.Hanna, D.J.Richardson, D.P.Shepherd A high-power variable

repetition rate picosecond optical parametric oscillator pumped by an

amplified gain-switched diode. Optics Express 2010 Vol.18(8) pp.7602-7610

L.Pearson, J.W.Kim, Z.Zhang, M.Ibsen, J.K.Sahu, W.A.Clarkson High-power linearly-polarized single-frequency thulium-doped fiber

master-oscillator power-amplifier.


J.Kakande, C.Lundstrom, P.A.Andrekson, Z.Tong, M.Karlsson, P.Petropoulos, F.Parmigiani, D.J.Richardson Detailed characterisation of a fiber-optic parametric amplifier

in phase-sensitive and phase-insensitive operation. Optics Express 2010 Vol.18 pp.4130-4137

Journal papers published in 2010


Optics Letters

K.K.Chen, S.-U.Alam, P.Horak, C.A.Codemard, A.Malinowski, D.J.Richardson Excitation of individual Raman Stokes lines

in the visible regime using rectangular-shaped nanosecond

optical pulses at 530 nm.

Optics Letters 2010 Vol.35(14) pp.2433-2435

Y.Jung, G.Brambilla, D.J.Richardson Polarization-maintaining

optical microfiber.


E.Y.Zhu, L.Qian, L.G.Helt, M.Liscidini, J.E.Sipe, C.Corbari, A.Canagasabey, M.Ibsen, P.G.Kazansky Measurement of

X(2) symmetry in a poled fiber. Optics Letters 2010 Vol.35(10) pp.1530-1532

M.Beresna, P.G.Kazansky Polarization diffraction grating produced

by femtosecond laser nanostructuring in glass.


G.S.Murugan, J.S.Wilkinson, M.N.Zervas Optical excitation

and probing of whispering gallery modes in bottle microresonators:

potential for all-fiber add-drop filters. Optics Letters 2010 Vol.35(11) pp.1893-1895

A.C.Peacock, N.Healy Parabolic pulse generation in tapered

silicon fibers.


A.Canagasabey, M.Ibsen, K.Gallo, A.V.Gladyshev, E.M.Dianov, C.Corbari, P.G.Kazansky Aperiodically poled

silica fibers for bandwidth control of quasi-phase-matched

second-harmonic generation.

Optics Letters 2010 Vol.35(5) pp.724-726 J.W.Kim, J.I.Mackenzie, D.Parisi, S.Veronesi, M.Tonelli, W.A.Clarkson Efficient in-band pumped Ho:LuLiF4 2 micron laser.


Physical Review Letters

V.A.Fedotov, N.Papasimakis, E.Plum, A.Bitzer, M.Walther, P.Kuo, D.P.Tsai, N.I.Zheludev Spectral collapse in ensembles

of meta-molecules.

Physical Review Letters 2010 Vol.104 pp.223901

A.Xuereb, T.Freegarde, P.Horak, P.Domokos Optomechanical cooling with generalized interferometers.

Phys Rev Lett 2010 Vol.105 pp.013602

A.E.Nikolaenko, F.De Angelis, S.A.Boden, N.Papasimakis, P.Ashburn, E.Di Fabrizio, N.I.Zheludev Carbon nanotubes in a

photonic metamaterial. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010 Vol.104 pp.153902

Proceedings of SPIE

P.G.Kazansky, M.Beresna, Y.Shimotsuma, K.Hirao, Y.P.Svirko New phenomena in interaction of intense ultrashort light pulses with

transparent materials: from 3D self-assembled nanostructures to quill

writing and nonreciprocal photosensitivity.

Proc. SPIE 2010 Vol.7600 pp.760017

Science

N.I.Zheludev The road ahead for metamaterials.

Science 2010 Vol.328 pp.582

Sensors & Actuators: B Chemical

R.M.Parker, J.C.Gates, M.C.Grossel, P.G.R.Smith A temperature

in-sensitive Bragg grating sensor using orthogonal polarisation modes

for in-situ temperature compensation.

Sensors & Actuators: B Chemical 2010 Vol.145 pp.428-432

Ultrasonics

P.Glynne-Jones, M.Hill, F.Zhang, L.Dong, J.Wilkinson, T.Brown, T.Melvin, N.Harris Multi-modal particle manipulator to enhance

bead-based bioassays.

Ultrasonics 2010 Vol.50(2) pp.235-239



“Our world-leading research teams are shaping the future, working with a wide range of industries to develop new technologies for communication, healthcare, transport, energy and the environment.”


Work with usThere is a long history of discovery and innovation at the ORC, and we are well aware that collaborations with other organizations have been fundamental to our success.

We are always open to new and interesting collaborations where a combination of expertise is mutually beneficial.

If you are part of an academic or industrial research organization with a national or international reputation, then we would be very interested in hearing from you.

The areas that we are currently working on can be fully explored through the research section of our website. However, we are also interested in exploring new areas, and not all of our most recent directions will have made it onto our website.

If you are interested in joining the vibrant and friendly team at the ORC please contact us for further information: [email protected]

About the ORCThe Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton is one of the largest university-based research groups entirely devoted to optoelectronics in the world, and has maintained a position at the forefront of photonics research for over four decades. Its long and well-established track record in the fields of optical fibres, lasers, waveguides, devices and optoelectronic materials has fostered innovation, enterprise, cross-boundary and multi-disciplinary activities.

Please visit our website for news, technological breakthroughs, research updates and people profiles: www.orc.soton.ac.uk

For further information and enquiries please email: [email protected]

Keep in touch

Many of our alumni move around a lot and it is difficult to keep a record of where everybody is. If you have recently moved, or are about to, we would be grateful if you could email: [email protected] with your new contact details or register online at: www.orc.soton.ac.uk/alumni.html

Join us on LinkedIn to receive details of forthcoming reunions and ORC events. Log in to LinkedIn and search for Optoelectronics Research Centre.

Study with usOur postgraduate students are an integral and vital part of the research staff at the ORC. The ORC has a history of scientific and engineering achievement spanning more than 40 years, and it continues to lead the field of photonics today. Some of the world’s leading scientists are based at the ORC, and as a graduate student you’ll have the opportunity to work with them, and make some history!

Students encounter subjects as diverse as photonics, laser physics, optical communications, nanotechnology, chemistry, materials science and biology – to name but a few. Our unusual and exciting multidisciplinary environment is extremely fertile ground for discovery.

For further details please visit: www.orc.soton.ac.uk/phdprogram.html


Dr Eric Plum (Photographer Andy Vowles)

PhD student Helen Rogers (Photographer Andy Vowles)

The Mountbatten building (Photographer Andy Vowles)

www.orc.soton.ac.uk [email protected] +44 (0)23 8059 4521

Light Times (Laser Special)

Documents

Transcript of Light Times (Laser Special)