New grants put UK photonics group on stronger wavelength

In one of the projects, experts at Aston's Photonics Research Group will use ultraviolet laser radiation to create sensing devices known as fibre Bragg gratings inside plastic optical fibres, enabling the fibres to be used to accurately measure temperature inside the human body or determine stresses and strains in aircraft wings and also bridges.

The major goal of the second project is development of new fabrication technology for waveguide-microchip lasers. Fabrication of a compact and robust laser with monolithic cavity based on crystals doped with rare-earth or transition metal ions is the target of the project. The developed technology will promote miniaturization of solid state lasers and will facilitate their integration in electronic systems.

The third project targets prototype all-optical regeneration solutions related both to optical fibre networks and optical interconnects.

The awards have been given through an EU funded competition within the Sixth Framework Human Resources and Mobility Programme, known as the Marie Curie Actions. The Photonics Research Group has been awarded two Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowships, hosted by Dr. D.J. Webb and Prof. I. Bennion; and one Marie Curie Chair hosted by Prof. S.K. Turitsyn. Under the grants experts Dr A Okhrimchuk of the Russian Academy of Science, Dr H Liu of the University of New South Wales in Sydney and Prof. V Grigoryan from Northwestern University, USA will join the Photonics Research Group to help perfect new optical technologies.

Fibre Bragg gratings are created by using laser radiation to write micron-sized structures inside an optical fibre – a 'light pipe' that traps photons in a small core, which is ten times smaller than a human hair. The grating then reflects light of only one wavelength back down the fibre, the precise wavelength depending on how much the fibre is strained or heated. The use of polymer as opposed to glass cables makes this process more flexible, extensive – it takes three times more strain than glass – and safer, as for instance the polymer cannot shatter inside the human body.

The first gratings in the new style fibres have been produced, attracting invitations for the research group to present keynote talks in Hong Kong, Brazil and France. The Photonics Research Group works with such companies as BAE, Airbus, France Telecom and Ericsson and also the Department of Trade and Industry.

“These three grants are a strong indication that there is something very special about the work we are doing here,” said Prof. Sergei Turitsyn of the Photonics Research Group. “The fact that so many people want to work with us means we are fast becoming a centre of excellence in this field,” he added.

His colleague Dr David Webb said: “The competition for the Marie Curie Actions is Europe-wide and the success rate of applications less than 20 percent, so it is clear the experts making the awards recognised the high standard of the environment and people here in the research group.”

The internationally renowned Photonics Research Group, the second largest of its kind in the country, was formed in 1991 and has around 50 staff involved in research and development of applications-orientated telecommunications, sensors, fibre grating technology, nonlinear optics and bio-photonics.