LASers for Exploitation (LASE) Technology Translation Grant

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor A Jha
Institute of Materials Research
University of Leeds

Standard

EPSRC

01 September 2010

31 August 2014

48 months

£1

Electronics

Yorkshire & Humberside

Cross-Discipline Interface

Professor A Jha, Institute of Materials Research, University of Leeds

Dr C Brown, Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews
Professor M Duggal, Dentistry, University of Leeds
Professor P Harrison, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds
Professor CS Herrington, Sch of Medicine, University of St Andrews
Professor RA Hogg, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield
Professor AK Kar, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr S Matcher, Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield
Professor R Penty, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Professor W Sibbett, Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews
Dr DP Steenson, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds
Professor K Toumba, Dentistry, University of Leeds
Professor I White, Engineering, University of Cambridge

"LASers for Exploitation (LASE)" technology translation project has emerged from the successful achievements of a basic technology project on "Nano- and micro-scale approaches to Glass-to-semiconductor integration", which is supported by a five-university consortium (Leeds, Cambridge, Heriot-Watt, Sheffield, and St. Andrews) since August 2006. In the technology translation phase the project consortium has dramatically changed from originally 5 to 7 by including the Universities of Durham and Hertfordshire and a range of UK and overseas industry (Dow Corning, GlaxoSmithKline, Intense, NASA, NHS, SELEX) for a range of collaborations in which the sectors representing are interested in exploitation of technology. Three specific objectives represent 3 main sectors of industry: Data Communication, applications of lasers in space and astronomy, and health and chemical process control, where the lasers are increasing their presence and making major impacts.The first application focusses on the loss-less switching and multi-wavelength sources by utilising the large bandwidth properties of a transition-metal and rare-earth ion co-doped waveguide gain block with polymer as a passive optical switching medium for high-capacity data transmission density (500 Gb/s/cm). The main driver for the successful technology is the cost which can only be offered by demonstrating novel combination of device properties in two dissimilar materials based devices (glass gain block and polymer switch), both of which will be connectorized to yield far superior performance than otherwise is possible. The application demonstrator is led by Cambridge in collaboration with Heriot-Watt and Leeds Universities, and is supported by Dow Corning.In our second application, we focus on developing two different elements of basic technologies for applications of 2 micron lasers in space and astronomy. In astronomy for spectrometric measurements, frequency stabilized sources are extremely important which is why St. Andrews in collaboration with the University of Hertfordshire will demonstration a frequency comb stabilised 2 micron laser source for testing at suitable sites in UK.Our proposal is also to seek application of 2 micron laser source as a seed laser for generating joule level of energy in a master oscillator for wind lidar applications, proposed by NASA. Doppler wind lidars measure wind velocity on the planet for atmospheric monitoring. The application here will be again led by St Andrews in collaboration with Leeds and is supported by NASA. Our 2 micron technology in combination with fs-laser inscribed glass waveguide will be used in spectrometry by generating broadband sources for spectrometry in Extremely Large Telescope where compact devices are especially important, which is an application already fostered via healthy collaboration between Heriot-Watt and Durham Universities. At Heriot-Watt there is also a proposal to use fs-laser inscribed diamond waveguidesfor Raman sources in collaboration with Selex, since diamond is known for producing large Stoke shifts with efficiencies in excess of 50%.In our final application various combinations of fs-laser inscription, waveguide amplifiers, and lasers are brought together to make a huge impact in photo-medicine and chemical sensing to benefit long-term patient care by providing much improved analysis for early stage cancer using OCT and Raman techniques, diabetes using random laser as non-invasive glucose and glycated haemoglobin detector, and 2 micron laser for eye-safe dental applications. Finally we also use 2 micron lasers, novel mid-IR glass waveguide sensors for pharmaceuticals industry, namely GSK. The application area is also strongly supported by NHS and Intense (UK) Ltd

11/11/11