Past seminars 2007

Speaker: Professor Joachim Krenn, Director of the Institute of Nanostructured Materials and Photonics, University of Graz, Austria

Abstract: Polaritonic modes at the interface of a metal and a dielectric – surface plasmons – feature specific properties as surface wave character, field enhancement and femtosecond lifetimes, making them particularly appealing for both fundamental research and photonic applications. In this context I will review recent progress in the development of plasmonic functionality, enabling quasi-two-dimensional microscopes or interfermeters more...
Date: Wednesday 12 December 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Din Ping Tsai, Center of Nanostorage Research and Department of Physics, National Taiwan University

Abstract: The optical response of the local plasmonic structures of the plasmonic nano thin film is the key of the near-field optical imaging and recording. The developments of the plasmonic nano thin films are closely related to the basic principle of plasmonic nanophotonics, and the connections of the near-field and far-field optical interactions of plasmonic nano-structures more...
Date: Monday 10 December 2007 

 

Speaker: Professor Katsu Okamoto, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California

Abstract: Integrated-optic waveguide devices become more and more complicated to realize high functionality. Channel numbers of AWGs have been dramatically increased up to 400ch in single wafer. In the multi-chip configuration, 4200ch has been achieved with 5GHz channel spacing more...

 

Pre-viva talk

Speaker: Rob Simpson

Abstract: Phase change data storage materials have been used for in rewriteable DVD and CDs for many years. For this PhD research, new materials have been investigated for electrical data storage and future optical storage technologies. High throughput combinatorial, thin film, deposition techniques have been adopted to investigate the full range of material compositions more...
Date: Friday 30 November 2007

 

Speaker: Professor John Boland, School of Chemistry and Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Abstract: Here in this presentation we describe recent STM results on contacts with single molecule and other nanoscale objects. We demonstrate that contact formation can result in dramatic electronic and structural rearrangements of the molecule, ones which can transform initially uninteresting and electrically insulation molecules into potential candidates for molecular devices more...
Date: Wednesday 28 November 2007

 

Speaker: Prof Anthony Krier, Physics Department, Lancaster University

Abstract: Mid-infrared semiconductor LEDs and lasers operating in the 2-5 µm spectral range are of interest for a wide variety of applications, including; chemical process control, environmental pollution monitoring, non-invasive medical diagnosis, tunable IR spectroscopy, laser surgery and free space optical communications. However, the advantages of this wavelength range have yet to be fully exploited due to the lack of suitable room temperature, high emittance sources more...

Date: Wednesday 21 November 2007

 

Speaker: Dr David Williams, Director of the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory 
Date: Tuesday 20 November 2007

 

Speaker: Prof Ian Walmsley, Oxford University

Abstract: Much of quantum optics has been enabled by the availability of nonlinear optical processes for the generation and manipulation of nonclassical states of light. A particularly useful resource has been the venerable process of frequency conversion in in crystalline materials. Despite its age, this well-studied process still has a few tricks up its sleeve that enable it to provide increased functionality in a number of applications involving ultrashort optical pulses more...
Date: Wednesday 14 November 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Robert Byer, Stanford University, California

Abstract: This seminar details our current research in Advanced Accelerators. This field stretches both physics and lasers to the limit but someday will provide a table top way to access attosecond physics and coherent hard X-rays at the same time more...
Date: Friday 9 November 2007

 

Speaker: Martin Wegener, Universitat Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract: Metamaterials are artificial structures composed of sub-wavelength functional building blocks that are densely packed into an effective material. Nanotechnology has brought these ideas to the optical regime, allowing for magnetism, negative refraction, and enhanced nonlinear responses. The talk gives an introduction into this emerging field and reviews recent progress more...
Date: Wednesday 7 November 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Ortwin Hess, University of Surrey

Abstract: Today’s progress in the optical sciences and nano-technologies opens up the realization of novel photonic materials and optoelectronic devices with designed characteristics and functionalities: Photonic opals bring about new concepts of colour, photonic metamaterials seem to turn well known optical laws upside-down and semiconductor quantum dots become customized coherent photon sources and gain-material for new lasers more... 
Date: Thursday 1 November 2007

 

Speaker: Professor John Dudley, University of Franche-Comté, Besançon

Abstract: Since its first observation in 2000, supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibre has been reported under many different experimental conditions and by many different groups worldwide. In this talk, we will review supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear and photonic crystal optical fibers and present an overview of the underlying spectral broadening processes more...
Date: Wednesday 31 October 2007

 

Speaker: Ian Wellington, ORC

Abstract: This talk presents results from the fabrication of UV direct-write structures in lithium niobate. Unassisted direct writing of surface channel waveguides using λ = 244 nm cw light resulted in polarisation specific waveguides fabricated on z - cut crystals. Waveguides were characterised using mode profiles, propagation losses and refractive index measurements. Surface domain reversal was observed in congruent lithium niobate on both +z and –z faces more...
Date: Wednesday 24 October 2007

 

Speaker: Sik So

Abstract: Ho:YAG lacks absorption bands coinciding with commonly available wavelengths for high-power laser diodes, an efficient diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser can be used instead, leading to an in-band pumped Ho:YAG laser. This project describes a power-scaling strategy for the Tm:YLF laser, which is followed by the demonstration of two different Ho:YAG laser architectures. These are an intra-cavity side-pumping scheme and a regular external end-pumping scheme.
Date: Wednesday 24 October 2007

 

Speaker: Adrian Amezcua-Correa, ORC

Abstract: Optical fibres are the transport medium of today's digital information. Nowadays, modern optical telecommunication systems make use of semiconductor optoelectronic devices to generate, control and detect light.
The union of the two technologies, namely fibre photonics and semiconductor electronics is expected to have a major impact on next generation of optoelectronic devices, exploiting both the guiding capabilities of optical fibres and the processing properties of semiconductors devices more...
Date: Wednesday 17 October 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Bernard Dussardier

Abstract: Rare-earth (RE)-doped optical fibre based devices have recently experienced tremendous progress. Silica-based fibres are cheap, reliable and able to sustain extremely high optical densities, compared to other alternative glasses. It is also expected that new active dopants in silica, as alternatives to the 'standard' Erbium, Ytterbium or Thulium ions, would offer access to optical amplification over broader or new spectral bands more... 
Date: Wednesday 3 October 2007

 

Pre-viva talk

Speaker: Vincent (Ming -Leung) Tse

Abstract: I investigate aspects of dispersion controlled high nonlinearity all silica holey fibres, including design, fabrication, sample applications, and modelling more...
Date: Wednesday 26 September 2007

 

Pre-viva talk

Speaker: Jing Wang, ORC

Abstract: Reported in this thesis is some progress towards high-average-power diode-pumped planar wave guide lasers. As a format of the laser active medium, planar waveguides take advantage of their extreme slab geometry, which is compatible with that of the high-power diode lasers, offer a great degree of versatility of the pump arrangement, have excellent thermal handling capability, and deliver high optical gains per unit pump power more... 
Date: Monday 17 September 2007

 

Speaker: Dr Jayanta Sahu, ORC

Abstract:Over the past years, the fiber lasers and amplifiers have progressed from the low-power systems for telecommunication applications to multi kW level sources suitable for industrial applications. Advances in fiber technology and availability of reliable high-power multimode diode pump sources, and the inherent power scalability of cladding-pumped technology, have led to the demonstration of output power beyond 2 kW in CW with diffraction limited beam quality from a ytterbium doped fiber laser operating at 1.1 μm more...
Date: Wednesday 22 August 2007

 

Speaker: Dr Fu Min Huang, ORC

Abstract: The resolution of a conventional optical microscope is generally believed to be limited to about half the wavelength of light, due to the loss of evanescent fields in the far-field. Many existing approaches for achieving optical superresolution are based on the idea to recover evanescent fields, such as superlens. Here we demonstrate that evanescent fields are actually not necessary elements to form subwavelength fields more...
Date: Wednesday 9 August 2007

 

Speaker: Dr Paul Kinsler, Imperial College London

Abstract: In this talk I will cover some of the basic concepts relevant to wideband nonlinear optics. These will include the three most widely used sets of equations: Maxwell's equations, the second order wave equation, and the new directional field techniques more...
Date: Wednesday 1 August 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Igor Yu. Denisyuk, University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Russia.

Abstract: This talk will present results from investigations made by a group of scientists during 2001 – 2007 more...
Date: Friday 27 August 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Tanya Monro, Centre of Expertise in Photonics, School of Chemistry & Physics at the University of Adelaide

Abstract: This presentation will review recent progress in the design, fabrication and application of soft glass microstructured optical fibres at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Work in four key areas will be described: fibres for new transmission wavelengths, nonlinear fibres for non-telecoms devices, chemical and biological sensing, and work towards soft glass microstructured fibre lasers more...
Date: Thursday 26 August 2007

 

Speaker: Prof Miles Padgett, Professor of Optics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.

Abstract: Optical vortices and orbital angular momentum are currently topical subjects in the optics literature. Although seemingly esoteric they are in fact the generic state of light and arise whenever three or more plane waves interfere. To be observed by eye the light must be monochromatic and laser speckle is one such example, where the optical energy circulates around each black spot, giving a local orbital angular momentum. This seminar will report three of our on-going studies more... 
Date: Wednesday 18 July 2007 

 

Pre-viva talk

Speaker: Rafiq Adikan, ORC

Abstract: This thesis describes a series of experimental studies concerning waveguide structures based on the direct UV and direct grating writing fabrication techniques. The latter approach allows simultaneous definition of waveguide structures and Bragg gratings more... 
Date: Wednesday 11 July 2007

 

Speaker: Hiroshi Mizuta, Nanoscale Systems Integration Group, School of Electronics and Computer Science

Abstract: Performance of VLSI circuits has steadily been improved by scaling down CMOS dimensions based on Moore’s Law, and a nearly exponential growth of microelectronics capabilities has been achieved. However, maintaining the ‘More Moore’ top-down trend is getting exceedingly hard due to fundamental physics and technological limitations as well as the economical limitation. Introduction of the bottom-up approach into the conventional silicon technologies has attracted much attention. In this talk I will first present my recent attempt of combining the top-down and bottom-up approaches to realize ‘Beyond CMOS’ devices for information processing more... 
Date: Wednesday 27 June 2007

 

Speaker: Professor John Love, Australian National University, Canberra

Abstract: Bend loss has been an important area of theoretical and experimental interest since the fabrication of the first single-mode fibres in the 1970's. Various theories have emerged since then to explain bend loss and account for experimental measurements but each one is essentially a modification of the previous theory. By adopting an entirely new approach based on mode coupling, a comprehensive description of bend loss can be developed that accounts for both transition and pure bend loss more...
Date: Wednesday 27 June 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Stefano Taccheo, Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Abstract: Active waveguide devices offer several advantages with respect to their fibre or bulk alternatives. However, several constraints have limited the development and performance of active waveguide devices, such as the optical amplifier or laser, in suitable applications. One of the main restrictions is the necessity of dealing with high-rare earth doping levels more...
Date: Wednesday 13 June 2007

 

Speaker: Kerstin Wörhoff, Integrated Optical MicroSystems Group, University of Twente

Abstract: In the first part of the presentation the research at IOMS, including technology and devices for communications, optical sensing, photonic crystals and active integrated optics, will be surveyed. The second part will focus on integrated optical waveguides based on rare-earth-ion doped Al₂O₃ and Y₂O₃ more...
Date: Wednesday 6 June 2007

 

Speaker: Mike Dunne, Director of the UK Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Abstract: The UK's Central Laser Facility provides a wide array of high power and high sensitivity lasers for a science program that stretches from atomic and plasma physics to medical diagnostics, biochemistry and environmental science more...
Date: Wednesday 23 March 2007

 

Speaker: Professor Albert Polman, Center for Nanophotonics, FOM-Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Abstract: We demonstrate several new concepts for the generation, concentration and detection of surface plasmons in thin films, metal nanowires, colloidal metallodielectric particles and DNA-assembled metal nanoparticle arrays more...
Date: Wednesday 16 May

 

Speaker: Daniel Jaque, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Abstract: In this work I will summarize the last results obtained by Time Resolved Confocal Luminescence experiments carried out in Nd:LiNbO channel waveguides fabricated by different methods including Femtosecond Laser Writing, Zn Diffusion and Reverse Proton Exchange. For this purpose Neodymium ions have been used as optical probes provided that its luminescence is sensitive to the presence of lattice defects, local compression or dilatation and local disorder. In this way, we have been able, by the analysis of the Neodymium luminescence at the sub-micrometric scale, to elucidate the origin of femtosecond laser written waveguides, to establish the relation between proton density and the Neodymium luminescence quenching in Reverse Proton Exchange waveguides and also to get a accurate spatial location of Zn diffused channel waveguides.
Date: Tuesday 13th March 2007