School of Physics & Astronomy

Photonics at St Andrews and Heriot-Watt

St Andrews and Heriot-Watt Physics departments have long been known for their pioneering work in lasers and optoelectronics.  The academic staff teaching on the MSc course are the same people who lead and work in the research teams at the two sites.  We list a few highlights of relevant St Andrews research here, but more details on research at St Andrews and at Heriot-Watt can be found from the two links in this sentence.  A summary of the Heriot-Watt activities is also given below.

Kerr-lens modelocked laser  St Andrews staff led the 12 million pound collaborative project "Ultrafast Photonics Collaboration".  This involved university research groups at Imperial College, Bristol, Glasgow, Sheffield and Heriot-Watt universities and eight major industrial partners (Agilent (formerly Hewlett-Packard), Marconi, Nortel Networks, JDS-Uniphase, Kymata, Sharp and Vitesse).

One of the research students in the ultrashort pulse group at St Andrews is shown adusting the pump beam into a KLM modelocked Ti:sapphire laser.

Prof Wilson Sibbett and co-worker in one of his photonics labs Prof Wilson Sibbett, FRS, invented a new form of modelocking, which is now widely used in commercial ultrashort pulse lasers.  His group's work in the generation and measurement of ultrashort pulses has been recognised in various ways, including him being invited to give plenary and invited papers at European and Global conferences,   the award of the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics, and a Fellowship of the Royal Society. Recently his interests have included the use of lasers in medicine and biology.

uopoweb.jpg (5807 bytes)Prof Malcolm Dunn's group has produced tunable coherent light from Optical Parametric Oscillators from the blue to the mid-infra-red.  The St Andrews in this area spans femtosecond, picosecond, nanosecond, and continuous wave regimes.  One of these systems has been engineered for use in the Photonics Teaching Laboratory.



IROPOweb.jpg (11428 bytes)A "Photonics Innovation Centre" has been set up at St Andrews, and further strengthens the links between the applicable photonics research in the School and end-users in industry and elsewhere.  The picture alongside shows an infra-red OPO being developed for one particular customer.

 



blackholeweb.jpg (7861 bytes)Prof Ulf Leonhardt's work in theoretical quantum optics predicted the existence of the optical analogue of "black holes".  This exciting discovery hit the international popular press.

He has also been a major player in the exciting work on developing the theory of invisibility cloaks. This has also caught the popular imagination.

 

Experimental work looking at black hole physics in optical fibresQuantum Information is a growing area of photonic science. Dr Natalia Korolkova works on theory in this area, while Dr Dr Frieder Koenig test some of these and other ideas experimentally. The lab work on creating in optical fires the optical analogue of black holes has proven particularly exciting.

Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Research.

trap1web.jpg (6570 bytes)Lasers can be used to slow down and trap atoms.  Prof Kishan Dholakia's work takes this a stage further, using a laser beam with a zero intensity on axis to guide cold atoms from one place to another.  The arrow alongside points to a clump of cold rubidium atoms in a vacuum cell.

Dr Donatella Cassettari leads a group looking at related work in Bose Einstein Condensation and related topics.


Light emitting polymersProf Ifor Samuel and Dr Graham Turnbull's teams work on the science of light emitting polymers under both electrical and photo-excitation.  These have great potential for use in displays, in some parts of telecommunications, remote sensing, medical treatments, and also in more general lighting applications.

Photonic CrystalPhotonic crystals have repetitive perturbations engineered into them on the scale of a wavlength of light.  These devices can then be used in guiding and multiplexing applications, amongst others.  The School's research cleanroom with its microfabrication kit allows him to manufacture and investigate these intriguing structures. Recent research success include slow light and green light from silicon.

LaparascopeMedical and biological applications of lasers and other light sources are being addressed by Profs Wilson Sibbett, Kishan Dholakia, Ifor Samuel, Dr Tom Brown in collaboration with Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, biologists in St Andrews and Dundee, and Prof Miles Padgett in the physics department at Glasgow University. 

St Andrews biophotonics collaboration.

At Heriot Watt. research teams are working on the following topics

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