Distinguished for his research on ultrafast laser science and technology, Professor Wilson Sibbett started his research studies in the development of picosecond electron-optical streak cameras and thier evaluation using a range of mode-locked, flashlamp-pumped lasers. This work led to the first demonstration of a linear diagnostic technique that offered direct sub-picosecond time resolution. This was followed some time later by his pioneering work on coupled-cavity (also called additive-pulse) mode locking and, in 1989, by his group's discovery of the technique of Kerr-lens (or self) mode locking that heralded a new era of practical and efficient femtosecond lasers. Although, first observed as an exploitation of the optical Kerr effect in titanium-doped sapphire, the general applicability of the "KLM" technique has opened up many new avenues of ultrafast laser science and related applications as well as enabling the commercialization of user-compatible femtosecond lasers that cover a wide range of frequency tunability . His research can be said to have made pioneering and revolutionary impacts in this area of photonics. Wilson's current research activities at St. Andrews, undertaken by the "Recent publications
B. Richards, A. Jha, Y. Tsang, D. Binks, J. Lousteau, F. Fusari, A. Lagatsky, C. Brown, W. Sibbett
"Tellurite glass lasers operating close to 2 μm"
Laser Physics Letters (currently online only).
A. A. Lagatsky, F. Fusari, S. Calvez, S. V. Kurilchik, V. E. Kisel, N. V. Kuleshov, M. D. Dawson, C. T. A. Brown, and W. Sibbett
"Femtosecond pulse operation of a Tm,Ho-codoped crystalline laser near 2 μm"
Optics Letters, 35, (2), pp. 172, (2010).
A.A. Lagatsky, C.G. Leburn, C.T.A. Brown, W. Sibbett, S.A. Zolotovskaya and E.U. Rafailov
"Ultrashort-pulse lasers passively mode locked by quantum-dot-based saturable absorbers"
Progress in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 34, pp. 1-45 (2010).
F. M. Bain, A. A. Lagatsky, R. R. Thomson, N. D. Psaila, N. V. Kuleshov, A. K. Kar, W. Sibbett, and C. T. A. Brown
"Ultrafast laser inscribed Yb:KGd(WO4)2 and
Yb:KY(WO4)2 channel waveguide lasers"
Optics Express, 17, (25), pp. 22417-22422, (2009).
A. A. Lagatsky, F. Fusari, S. V. Kurilchik, V. E. Kisel, A. S. Yasukevich, N. V. Kuleshov, A. A. Pavlyuk, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett
"Optical spectroscopy and efficient continuous-wave operation near 2 μm for a Tm,Ho:KYW laser crystal"
Applied Physics B - Lasers and Optics, 97, pp. 321-326, (2009).
A. A. Lagatsky, F. Fusari, S. Calvez, J. A. Gupta, V. E. Kisel, N. V. Kuleshov, C. T. A. Brown, M. D. Dawson, W. Sibbett
"Passive mode locking of a Tm,Ho:KY(WO4)2 laser around 2 μm"
Optics Letters, 34, (17), pp. 2587-2589 (2009).
M. P. Lumb, E. M. Clarke, E. Harbord, P. Spencer and R. Murray
F. Masia, P.Borri and W. Langbein
C. G. Leburn, C. Jappy, N. K. Metzger, C. T. A. Brown and W. Sibbett
"Ultrafast absorption recovery dynamics of 1300 nm quantum dot saturable absorber mirrors"
Applied Physics Letters: 95, (4), 041101 (2009).
M. P. Lumb, P. N. Stavrinou, E. M. Clarke and R. Murray
C. G. Leburn, C. Jappy, N. K. Metzger, C. T. A. Brown and W. Sibbett
"Dispersionless saturable absorber mirrors with large modulation depths and low saturation fluences"
Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics: 97, pp.53-60, (2009).
F. M. Bain, A. A. Lagatsky, S. V. Kurilchick, V. E. Kisel, S. A. Guretsky, A. M. Luginets, N. A. Kalanda, I. M. Kolesova, N. V. Kuleshov, W. Sibbett, C. T. A. Brown
"Continuous-wave and Q-switched operation of a compact, diode-pumped Yb3+:KY(WO4)2 planar waveguide laser "
Optics Express, 17, (3), 1666–1670 (2009).
F. Fusari, A. A. Lagatsky, B. Richards, A. Jha, W. Sibbett, and C. T. Brown
"Spectroscopic and lasing performance of Tm3+-doped bulk TZN and TZNG tellurite glasses operating around 1.9 μm "
Optics Express, 16, (23): 19146–19151 (2008).
N. K. Metzger, C. G. Leburn, A. A. Lagatsky, C. T. Brown, S. Calvez, D. Burns, H. D. Sun, M. D. Dawson, J. C. Harmand, and W. Sibbett
"Femtosecond pulse generation around 1500nm using a GaInNAsSb SESAM "
Optics Express, 16, (23): 18739-18744 (2008).
A. A. Lagatsky, V. E. Kisel, A. E. Troshin, N. A. Tolstik, N. V. Kuleshov, N. I. Leonyuk, A. E. Zhukov, E. U. Rafailov and W. Sibbett
"Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Er,Yb:YAl3(BO3)(4) laser at 1.5-1.6 μm"
Optics Letters, 33, (1): 83-85, (2008).
S. Calvez, N. Laurand, H. D. Sun, J. Weda, D. Burns, M. D. Dawson, A. Harkonen, T. Jouhti, M. Pessa, M. Hopkinson, D. Poitras, J. A. Gupta, C. G. Leburn, C. T. A. Brown and W. Sibbett
"GaInNAs(Sb) surface normal devices"
Physica Status Solidi a-Applications and Materials Science, 205, (1): 85-92, (2008).
C. T. A. Brown, D. Stevenson, X. Tsampoula, C McDougall, A. A. Lagatsky, W. Sibbett, F. J. Gunn-Moore and K. Dholakia
"Enhanced operation of femtosecond lasers and application in cell transfection"
Journal of Biophotonics, 1, (3):183-199 (2008).
A. A. Lagatsky, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett, S. J. Holmgren, C. Canalias, V. Pasiskevicius, F. Laurell and E. U. Rafailov
"Efficient doubling of femtosecond pulses in aperiodically and periodically poled KTP crystals"
Optics Express, 15, (3): 1155-1160, (2007).
A. A. Lagatsky, F. M. Bain, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett, D. A. Livshits, G. Erbert and E. U. Rafailov
"Low-loss quantum-dot-based saturable absorber for efficient femtosecond pulse generation"
Applied Physics Letters, 91, (23), (2007).
J. L. Mortensen, A. McWilliam, C. G. Leburn, P. Tidemand-Lichtenberg, M. Thorhauge, J. Janousek, C. T. A. Brown, A. A. Lagatsky, P. Buchhave and W. Sibbett
"Up to 30 mW of broadly tunable CW green-to-orange light, based on sum-frequency mixing of Cr4+ : forsterite and Nd : YVO4 lasers"
Optics Communications, 260, (2): 637-640, (2006).
A. McWilliam, A. A. Lagatsky, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett, A. E. Zhukov, V. M. Ustinov, A. P. Vasil'ev and E. U. Rafailov
"Quantum-dot-based saturable absorber for femtosecond mode-locked operation of a solid-state laser"
Optics Letters, 31, (10): 1444-1446, (2006).
A. M. Malyarevich, M. S. Gaponenko, K. V. Yumashev, A. A. Lagatsky, W. Sibbett, A. A. Zhilin and A. A. Lipovskii
"Nonlinear spectroscopy of PbS quantum-dot-doped glasses as saturable absorbers for the mode locking of solid-state lasers"
Journal of Applied Physics, 100, (2), (2006).
A. A. Lagatsky, A. M. Malyarevich, V. G. Savitski, M. S. Gaponenko, K. V. Yumashev, A. A. Zhilin, C. T. A. Brown and W. Sibbett
"PbS quantum-dot-doped glass for efficient passive mode locking in a CW Yb:KYW laser"
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 18, (1-4): 259-261, (2006).
A. McWilliam, A. A. Lagatsky, C. G. Leburn, P. Fischer, C. T. A. Brown, G. J. Valentine, A. J. Kemp, S. Calvez, D. Burns, M. D. Dawson, M. Pessa and W. Sibbett
"Low-loss GaInNAs saturable Bragg reflector for mode-locking of a femtosecond Cr4+:forsterite-laser"
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 17, (11): 2292-2294, (2005).
A. A. Lagatsky, E. U. Rafailov, W. Sibbett, D. A. Livshits, A. E. Zhukov and V. M. Ustinov
"Quantum-dot-based saturable absorber with p-n junction for mode-locking of solid-state lasers"
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 17, (2): 294-296, (2005).
A. A. Lagatsky, E. U. Rafailov, A. R. Sarmani, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett, L. Ming and P. G. R. Smith
"Efficient femtosecond green-light source with a diode-pumped mode-locked Yb3+:KY(WO4)2 laser"
Optics Letters, 30, (10): 1144-1146, (2005).
A. A. Lagatsky, A. R. Sarmani, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett, V. E. Kisel, A. G. Selivanov, I. A. Denisov, A. E. Troshin, K. V. Yumashev, N. V. Kuleshov, V. N. Matrosov, T. A. Matrosova and M. I. Kupchenko
"Yb3+-doped YVO4 crystal for efficient Kerr-lens mode locking in solid-state lasers"
Optics Letters, 30, (23): 3234-3236, (2005).
Y. J. Chai, C. G. Leburn, A. A. Lagatsky, C. T. A. Brown, R. V. Penty, I. H. White and W. Sibbett
"1.36-Tb/s spectral slicing source based on a Cr4+:YAG femtosecond laser"
Journal of Lightwave Technology, 23, (3): 1319-1324, (2005).
E. U. Rafailov, S. J. White, A. A. Lagatsky, A. Miller, W. Sibbett, D. A. Livshits, A. E. Zhukov and V. M. Ustinov
"Fast quantum-dot saturable absorber for passive mode-locking of solid-state lasers"
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 16, (11): 2439-2441, (2004).
C. G. Leburn, A. A. Lagatsky, C. T. A. Brown and W. Sibbett
"Femtosecond Cr4+: YAG laser with 4GHz pulse repetition rate"
Electronics Letters, 40, (13): 805-807, (2004).
A. A. Lagatsky, C. T. A. Brown and W. Sibbett
"Highly efficient and low threshold diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:KYW laser"
Optics Express, 12, (17): 3928-3933, (2004).
A. A. Lagatsky, C. G. Leburn, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett, A. M. Malyarevich, V. G. Savitski, K. V. Yumashev, E. L. Raaben and A. A. Zhilin
"Passive mode locking of a Cr4+: YAG laser by PbS quantum-dot-doped glass saturable absorber"
Optics Communications, 241, (4-6): 449-454, (2004).
C. T. A. Brown, M. A. Cataluna, A. A. Lagatsky, E. U. Rafailov, M. B. Agate, C. G. Leburn and W. Sibbett
"Compact laser-diode-based femtosecond sources"
New Journal of Physics, 6, (2004).
A. A. Lagatsky, C. G. Leburn, C. T. A. Brown, W. Sibbett and W. H. Knox
"Compact self-starting femtosecond Cr4+: YAG laser diode pumped by a Yb-fiber laser"
Optics Communications, 217, (1-6): 363-367, (2003).
A. A. Lagatsky, E. U. Rafailov, C. G. Leburn, C. T. A. Brown, N. Xiang, O. G. Okhotnikov and W. Sibbett
"Highly efficient femtosecond Yb:KYW laser pumped by single narrow-stripe laser diode"
Electronics Letters, 39, (15): 1108-1110, (2003)