Light Times Magazine, Issue 2 2011

Issue 2 | 2011

Light Times News from the Optoelectronics Research Centre.

In this edition we look at recent collaborative projects led by the ORC which reinforce our strong links with industry, research institutions and universities worldwide.

Environmental sense. Research breakthrough with zinc selenide | page 4 Leading the advance in global data transmission | page 12 ORC Director elected Chairman of Marconi Society | page 14

In this issue Welcome to Light Times, the magazine for the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton. In this issue we explore some of the ORC’s research collaborations with world-leading industrial companies and higher education establishments. Collaboration is at the heart of our success in the development of ground-breaking, viable technologies to overcome challenges faced by society today and in the future.

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Additionally, we review the highlights and events of the past few months at the ORC and bring you up to date with our student successes, events, awards and published research.

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1. Environmental sense.

Research breakthrough with zinc selenide Find out how this yellow-coloured semiconductor is broadening applications of laser technology Page 4 2. Sparking a new generation of innovation The world’s first integrated optical (IO) micromachining facility revolutionises IO circuit production Page 7 3. Group paper featured in IET electronics letters Read about the latest breakthrough in thin-film Phase-Change Random Access Memory development led by Senior Research Fellow, Dr Kevin Huang Page 9

To catch up on our latest news please visit www.orc.southampton.ac.uk We welcome your feedback, so please get in touch and let us know what you would like to see in future editions of Light Times.

4. ORC’s largest laser will advance research into wavelength conversion Our new TRUMPF Yb:YAG disk laser is our largest laser installation yet and forms part of the new materials processing laboratory Page 10

Deanna Standen Editor, Light Times light@orc.southampton.ac.uk

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5. ORC Director elected Chairman of the Marconi Society ORC Director, Professor David Payne is honoured to lead the renowned Marconi Society in his influential role as Chairman in support of pioneering research and innovation Page 14

Front cover: ORC researchers lead advance in global data transmission see page 12

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Environmental sense.

Research breakthrough with zinc selenide A new class of optical fibre has the potential to improve surgical and medical lasers as well as applications in environmental sensing.

Scientists from the ORC worked with Penn State University (PSU) to pioneer the first optical fibre made with a core of zinc selenide, which is a transparent, yellow-coloured semiconductor, with a very wide transparency range from the visible to beyond 15 microns in the infrared. This new class of optical fibre allows for effective manipulation of infrared light and promises to open the door to more versatile laser technology.

The new fibres, which were optically characterised at the ORC, have been found to be efficient at converting light from one colour to another using a process called nonlinear frequency conversion, which provides versatility in the visible spectrum and in the infrared. Exploiting this new fibre core material represents a step towards making novel infrared lasers.

“In particular, the fibre format allows for very robust, compact and rugged solid-state laser systems with inherent high-performance characteristics,” explains Anna Peacock, a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at the ORC, one of the three Southampton scientists involved with the research, along with Noel Healy and Senior Research Fellow Pier Sazio. Pier added: “Other applications for Using an innovative high-pressure chemical these fibres include the detection of pollutants and deposition technique developed at PSU, the team put environmental toxins, and they may also open new zinc selenide inside silica glass capillaries to form the avenues of research that could improve laser-assisted new optical fibres. The high-pressure deposition is surgical techniques, such as corrective eye surgery.” unique in allowing formation of such long, thin zinc selenide fibre cores in a very confined space.

John Badding, Professor of Chemistry at PSU, which led the research, observed: “We’ve known for a long time that zinc selenide is a useful compound, capable of manipulating light in ways that silica can’t. The trick was to get this compound into a fibre structure, something that had never been done before.”

High purity crystalline ZnSe compound semiconductor waveguides exhibit very low loss (e.g. <1 dB cm-1 at 1550 nm wavelength). The superior optical and electronic properties of crystalline compound semiconductors can now be exploited in a fibre geometry.

“We’ve known for a long time that zinc selenide is a useful compound, capable of manipulating light in ways that silica can’t. The trick was to get this compound into a fibre structure, something that had never been done before.”

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Student success Celebrating the achievements of ORC students

A new chapter in student experience The SPIE Board of Directors recently approved the formation of a new Student Chapter in the ORC. One of just four student chapters in the United Kingdom, the University of Southampton SPIE chapter will run alongside the current OSA Student Chapter to provide a platform for students to communicate their research both internally and externally, and to enhance the student experience whilst studying at the ORC. SPIE was formed in 1955 with the aim of promoting research and development in optics and photonics. As well as providing additional funding for student chapter events, SPIE can provide assistance with conference travel grants, meetings between Student Chapters and support for running conferences, such as IONS-10 in Southampton in August 2011.

For further information about the Chapter please visit www.orc.southampton.ac.uk/OSA/56.html

‘Super’ poster wins at Nano Meta First year student, Tapashree Roy, was awarded a best poster prize at the recent Nano Meta 2011 conference, held at the Seefeld ski resort, Tirol, Austria. Her poster, entitled ‘Superoscillating Superlens’, demonstrated a farfield superlens focussing light down 0.22 spot-size, double the performance of an ideal conventional lens. The 40 micron diameter lens was fabricated using focussed-ion beam (FIB) technology in the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre.

The competition was sponsored by Science and the European Physical Society. Tapashree was presented with a certificate, two books, and 100 Euros in recognition for her poster: “I’m glad to get the acknowledgment that reflects the quality of our work and my presentation skills. I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Nikolay Zheludev and Dr Ed Rogers for having confidence in me and giving me the opportunity to present in such a prestigious conference,” said Tapashree.

Information overload project awarded £2,000 pioneering prize

Dr Christopher Holmes has developed the world’s first integrated optical micromachining facility

Sparking a new generation of innovation

PhD student, Behrad Gholipour has been awarded a £2,000 prize for his project, ‘Information Overload’, at the EPSRC hosted ICT Pioneers awards ceremony in London.

Selected from over 80 entries, Behrad’s research into chalcogenides for the future examines the use of chalcogenide thin-films as a new electrical and optical material. The ability of this group of materials to conduct electrons and ions promises novel solutions for next generation logic and memory devices, which could take us beyond the limits of the silicon chip and into a world where computers can think and adapt. Chalcogenides can also impact ultra-high speed optoelectronic switches to power the internet and future computers.

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Behrad (right) holding his ICT Pioneers award

A ground-breaking research project in the ORC is set to have a dramatic global impact on almost every piece of high-tech equipment in use today: the world’s first integrated optical (IO) micromachining facility has been developed in our laboratories in Southampton. It will significantly reduce the time and cost of producing integrated optical circuits.

Integrated optical circuits are increasingly taking over from integrated electronic circuits (miniaturised silicon chips) the

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latter usually taking more than a month to make using traditional fabrication methods.

However, using this revolutionary, ultra-precision micro-machining technique the production time can be reduced to just minutes. Integrated optical circuits manipulate light instead of electrons, allowing signals to be processed at light speeds and are already being developed for commercial use in chemical and physical sensors deployed in telecommunications routers.

Dr Christopher Holmes, leading the process, explained: “The ORC is the only organisation in the world to have developed such a system and one day everybody could be logging on to a computer that is powered with micromachined integrated optical circuits that have been developed thanks to the research here at Southampton.”

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Los Angeles hosted the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC 2011)

Collaborating on next generation optoelectronic technologies

“Our work will impact on policy makers, stakeholders, research councils and government – providing clear measurable results that demonstrate the value of investment in UK-led research.”

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded a 1.48 million pound research grant to the ORC, a key partner in collaboration with the Universities of Surrey and Cambridge for the pioneering research project, ‘Amorphous Chalcogenidebased optoelectronic platform for next generation optoelectronic technologies’.

The project forms an important component of the EPSRC’s Grand Challenge in Microelectronics and draws together scientists and technologists from the Advance Technology Institute (Surrey), the Department of Chemistry (Cambridge) along with VSEA (Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates) to focus on developing new functionality of materials based on amorphous chalcogenides. Chalcogenide glasses are already in use for thin-film and fibre waveguides, switching, light emission and amplification while electronic applications, such as phase-change memory, are emerging in microelectronics.

Professor Dan Hewak, ORC project leader, said: “We expect this project to generate considerable attention in both research and industrial communities. This research will stimulate interest in further electrical and optical applications of chalcogenides on a local and international scale, particularly as we move towards commercial realisation.

Many of the device goals, such as LEDs, photodiodes, photovoltaic cells, optical amplifiers, switches, logic gates and

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memory cells will be of great interest to large electronics companies.”

The project’s investigators have established links with leading international companies and this clear industrial interest is reinforced by the involvement of a leading international expert in the field of applications of ionimplantation, Dr Jonathan England (Senior Technologist, Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates - VSEA). Jonathan is undertaking the role of project mentor, with VSEA sponsoring his time to the project. His extensive international experience in hightechnology development and industrial end-user interaction will be a significant asset to the programme - enhancing its industrial impact.

Dr Richard Curry, University of Surrey project leader, explained: “Our work will impact on policy makers, stakeholders, research councils and government - providing clear measurable results that demonstrate the value of investment in UK-led research.

Ultimately, the development of new technologies to assist commerce, healthcare and improved device energy efficiencies will provide long-term benefits to the economy and society as a whole.”

The grant is initially awarded over two years during which the number and range of collaborations and industrial interest is expected to grow in the new chalcogenidebased optoelectronic platform.

Post deadline session paper presented at OFC 2011

Group paper featured in IET forum

March: Los Angeles hosted the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC 2011) at which the ORC presented a paper at the prestigious Post Deadline session. This special session is highly regarded within the optical communications industry as a showcase for the most important latest developments in the field.

Dr Kevin Huang, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton’s ORC has had his group’s paper, ‘Electrical phase-change of CVD-grown Ge-Sb-Te thin-film device’ selected as the feature letter in the IET’s Electronics Letters in March. IET Electronics letters is a forum for the very latest results and ideas in the advancement of electronic or electrical engineering technology.

The paper, ‘Field trial of an all-optical PSK (Phase Shift Keying) regenerator in a 40 Gbit/s, 38 channel DWDM (Dense Wave-length Division Multiplexing) transmission experiment,’ reports the first field trial of a phase and amplitude regenerator highlighting the practicality of the technology. Dr Periklis Petropoulos explained: “Acceptance of our paper at the OFC Post Deadline session demonstrates the great value of this research.

The trial shows that our system is capable of processing signals that have undergone transmission on installed fibre links. By using all-optical processing, the requirement for power-hungry fast electronics is negated, potentially offering benefits both in terms of speed and energy consumption of our communication networks.”

The research is part of a collaboration led by the ORC as part of the EU-funded PHASORS project. For more information, turn to our feature on page 12.

Dr Kevin Huang examines his CVD-grown Ge-Sb-Te The paper describes research and prototype thin-film device testing conducted under the supervision of Professor Dan Hewak on a new CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) grown Ge-Sb-Te thin-film phase-change memory device. CVD-grown thin-film technology is attracting considerable interest as a prime candidate for the next generation of nonvolatile devices to meet future data storage needs. CVD uses unique chemistry developed

by Dr Huang to deposit high-purity, highperformance solid materials in production of thin-film PCRAM devices. PCRAM (PhaseChange Random Access Memory) provides higher density storage and operation speed over existing flash technology; critical to meeting the continually growing demand for rewritable storage. The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Photonics, continues to show promising results for CVDgrown materials for both thin-film and optical fibre applications .

Acknowledgements go to authors of the paper: Professor D Hewak, B Gholipour, J Y Ou and K Knight.

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News in brief Latest developments - people places events

ORC’s largest laser will advance research into wavelength conversion

First ORC reunion at CLEO Munich Our first ever ORC Reunion to be held at CLEO Europe in Munich was hailed a great success by all. Sponsored by SPI Lasers and Fianium; leading fibre laser companies with origins at the ORC, the event attracted 81 attendees and provided an excellent opportunity to meet with old friends and make some new ones, in the relaxed surroundings of the Park Café, Munich. Previous alumni events have been held at the Optical Fibre Conferences in the US, but this was the first event at a CLEO conference, recognising the ORC’s reach into the wider laser community.

The ORC’s largest laser yet was installed in May. The new TRUMPF TruDisk HLD 4002 is a Yb:YAG disk laser with 4 kW of output power (cw) at a wavelength of 1030 nm.

The diode-pumped solid state laser offers many benefits; the diode laser contributing a high level of efficiency and the disk provides a high beam quality (8 mm mrad). The disk has no thermal lensing and therefore no optical distortion, keeping the beam quality constant over the entire power range.

Senior Research Fellow now a published editor

Professor Johan Nilsson, who sourced the new laser for the ORC’s Materials Processing lab, said: “This makes it a unique, robust tool for further research into wavelength conversion at ultra-high powers in fibre and crystal, as well as into more conventional materials processing.”

Dr Senthil Ganapathy, Senior Research Fellow at the ORC, has had his first book published as editor. The book looks at both non-conventional photonic glasses and a relatively new category of materials in photonics, transparent glassceramics. This research review, authored by respected experts in their field, provides researchers and postgraduate students with a history and review of current, state-of-theart research in each of the discussed glass and glass-ceramic materials. It opens with the industrially important nonsilicate photonic glasses (fluoride, chalcogenide and tellurite) and covers thermally-poled glasses before concluding with photonic glass-ceramics.

ORC reunion at OFC Los Angeles OFC, Los Angeles was the prestigious venue for our US based ORC Reunion in March. The well-appointed hospitality suite accommodated upwards of 50 of the world’s key players in the photonics industry; all from the ORC’s large international network of alumni. The reunion was graciously sponsored by PriTel, Illinois based specialists in RF Dr K V Reddy of PriTel, sponsor of this and next year’s and optical technologies, and Alnair ORC Reunion Laboratories, a leading Tokyo based manufacturer of ultra-short pulse laser systems with close links to the University of Tokyo and the ORC. The event was well received, with next year’s sponsors already on board.

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Senthil explained: “This is a dynamic field - continually advancing. The book will nevertheless help readers understand the fundamental concepts of each subject. ‘Photonic Glasses and Glass-Ceramics’ is a significant step towards achieving my goal of a complete research review of the non-conventional photonic glasses and glass-ceramics.”

The book includes material contributed by some of Senthil’s fellow researchers in the ORC: “I was very lucky to work with pioneers in glass science, such as Marcel Poulain, Dan Hewak, Yasutake Ohishi, Efstratios Kamitsos and KBR Varma, to mention a few. I’m grateful to all the authors who contributed to the book; without their commitment, cooperation and responsiveness, it would have not been possible.”

For stockists and further information please visit www.ressign.com/UserBookDetail.aspx?bkid=992&catid=224

ORC alumni meet at OFC. Left to right: Dr Sze Set, President & CEO, Alnair Labs Corporation; Prof David Payne, ORC Director; Dr Philippe de Sandro, VP R&D of Coractive and Dr Sergio Barcelos, Chief Technology Officer of Fiberwork Optical Communications

On behalf of the ORC, Professor Peter Smith introduced the event at the Park Café near the centre of Munich - welcoming University of Southampton alumni, colleagues (past and present), current PhD students, collaborators and friends of the ORC and numerous staff from local Southampton spin-off companies. Responding on behalf of the sponsors John Ure, from SPI Lasers, highlighted the global impact of the ORC at the University of Southampton on Optoelectronics over the past 30 years. The 81 guests socialised well into the night.

Friends old and new relaxing at the ORC reunion in Munich

A date for your diary IONS-10 Southampton August 10 - 13, 2011 The tenth International OSA Network ofStudents conference is to be held at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, Southampton.

To register please visit: www.ions–project.org

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Leading the advance in global data transmission

The proliferation of bandwidth-hungry applications such as video streaming, social networking sites, MMS and on-line conferencing has seen demand for rapid data transmission rates leap 80% per year.

The team’s work, a stream of the EU-funded FP7 PHASORS project, has lead to a major breakthrough in development of a new alloptical phase shift keyed (PSK) regenerator.

PSK is a form of communication used more and more in modern optical communications.

One of its greatest challenges is that of phase and amplitude noise from optical amplifiers and ‘cross talk’ between channels during transmission. The PHASORS team believes they can potentially eliminate this interference.

In a paper published at the Post Deadline session at this year’s Optical Fiber Communications Conference, ORC scientists

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The all-optical PSK regenerator was tested under ‘real network’ parameters on the ORC’s Dark Fibre link (part of the JANET Aurora Network). It extends from Southampton to London and back (400 km). Using a DWDM network operating within the C-band frequency range, subject to realistic environmental noise conditions, 38 channels

were sent at 40 G bit/s per channel on a 100 GHz grid (total capacity approaching 1.5 Tbit/s).

ORC Deputy Director and PHASORS Director, Professor David Richardson comments: “This result is an important first step towards the practical implementation of all-optical signal processing of phase encoded signals, which are now being exploited commercially due to their improved data carrying capacity relative to conventional amplitude coding schemes.

“Our PSK regenerator and its associated component technology will have significant applications across a range of disciplines beyond telecommunications – including optical sensing, metrology, as well as many other basic test and measurement applications in science and engineering.”

Filter DWDM Transmitter

Network A

37 Channels

400km

Network B Add

announced the field trial of an all-optical PSK regenerator in a 40 Gbit/s, 38 channel DWDM (Dense Wave-length Division Multiplexing) transmission experiment: the first practical phase sensitive amplifier and phase regenerator for high-speed binary phase encoded signals. This device eliminates phase noise directly in-line without the need for conversion to an electronic signal, thus high transmission speed is unimpeded.

Additionally, the requirement for fast, powerhungry electronics for signal processing is negated, providing benefits both in terms of speed and energy consumption of our communication networks.

Drop

Researchers led by ORC Deputy Director, Professor David Richardson have developed a new all-optical data transmission system that could substantially improve the transmission capacity and energy efficiency of the world’s optical communication networks.

Regenerator + DWDM CHANNEL A

( -conversion)

Channel B

400km Receiver

DWDM CHANNEL B

Block diagram showing the all-optical regeneration trial on the "Aurora" installed transmission network

Led by the ORC, the field trial was conducted in collaboration with leading industrial partners: OFS (Denmark), Dublin based Eblana Photonics and CESNET (Czech Republic).

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ORC Director elected Marconi Society Chairman ORC Director, Professor David Payne, has been elected Chairman of the Board of the Marconi Society. He will lead the Society in the international debate on funding for long-term fundamental research.

The Marconi Society was established in 1974 through an endowment set up

by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy).

It is best known for the Marconi Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding individual or individuals whose work and influence in communications and information science emulates the principle of “creativity in service to humanity” that inspired Marconi.

The Society also promotes awareness of major innovations in communications theory, technology and applications through symposia, conferences, forums and publications, as well as through annual “Young Scholar” awards.

Claude Berrou, for his invention of turbo codes. Last year, the prize went to Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, the founders of Adobe Systems, for work that fundamentally transformed the world of digital printing.

“It’s a great honour to be asked to lead the Marconi Society,” said David. “There’s never been a time when the field of communications and information science—both on the hardware and the software side—was of greater importance than it is now. We are faced with great challenges, and I believe strongly in the importance of the Society’s work to encourage young scientists.”

For the past two years, in addition to serving on the Marconi Society Board, David has served on the Young Scholars Selection Committee, which identifies outstanding graduate researchers in information and communications science for special recognition.

Professor Payne succeeds Dr Robert W Lucky, the renowned Bell Labs scientist and inventor of the automatically adaptive equalizer. David received the 2008 Marconi Prize for his work “We believe the Marconi Society can and in developing the erbium-doped optical fibre should play a leading role in an international amplifier. Other recent winners have included discussion on the problem of dwindling Bell Labs scientists, Andrew Chraplyvy funding for long-term fundamental research and Robert Tkach, for their work on optical that is critical to achieving breakthrough fibre communication systems; Professor advances,” said David. “Under my leadership I Ron Rivest of MIT, for his work developing hope to advance that goal.” the world’s most widely used public key encryption system; Google founders Sergey Additional information about the Marconi Brin and Larry Page; Stanford Professor Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found John Cioffi for his invention of the modern at www.marconisociety.org high speed modem that enabled DSL; and

Professor David Payne’s successful entrepreneurial efforts have helped establish 11 photonics companies and he has received the top American, European and Japanese prizes in photonics, a rare achievement. He won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2007 Photonics Award, and he received the UK Rank Prize for Optics and the prestigious US Tyndall Award. A Franklin Laureate (USA) and, most recently, a Millennium Prize Laureate, David is also a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

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ORC Deputy Director elected Fellow of the European Physical Society Professor Nikolay Zheludev, Deputy Director of the ORC has been elected a Fellow of the European Physical Society “for his pioneering and foundational work and international leadership in the fields of metamaterials, nanophotonics and nonlinear optics.” The EPS has only 56 Fellows.

The European Physical Society was created in 1968 for promoting Physics in Europe. It unites thousands of individual and corporate members and 41 national physical societies, including the Institute of Physics. For the ORC it is best known as the home for CLEO/ EQEC-Europe and Nanometa conferences.

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Journal papers published from January 2011 - June 2011 “The ORC has a spectacular history of innovation our researchers publish about 200 journal papers per year and enjoy tremendous academic success” Professor David Payne

Advanced Materials J.R.Sparks, R.He, N.Healy, M.Krishnamurthi, A.C.Peacock, P.J.A.Sazio, V.Gopalan, J.V.Badding Zinc selenide optical fibers Advanced Materials 2011 Vol.23(14) pp.1647-1651 Applied Physics Letters Y.Jung, G.Brambilla, G.S.Murugan, D.J.Richardson Optical racetrack ring-resonator based on two U-bent microfibers Applied Physics Letters 2011 Vol.98 pp.021109 R.Lorenzi, Y.Jung, G.Brambilla In-line absorption sensor based on coiled optical microfiber Applied Physics Letters 2011 Vol.98 pp.173504 P.Wang, G.S.Murugan, T.Lee, X.Feng, Y.Semenova, Q.Wu, W.Loh, G.Brambilla, J.S.Wilkinson, C.Farrell Lead silicate glass microsphere resonators with absorption-limited Q Applied Physics Letters 2011 Vol.98(18) pp.181105 H.Steigerwald, Y.J.Ying, R.W.Eason, K.Buse, S.Mailis, E.Soergel Direct writing of ferroelectric domains on the x- and y-faces of lithium niobate using a continuous wave ultraviolet laser Applied Physics letters 2011 Vol.98(6) pp.062902 Applied Surface Science K.S.Kaur, M.Feinäugle, D.P.Banks, J.Y.Ou, F.Di Pietrantonio, E.Verona, C.L.Sones, R.W.Eason Laser-induced forward transfer of focussed ion beam pre-machined donors Applied Surface Science 2011 Vol.257(15) pp.6650-6653 Crystal Growth & Design T.C.May-Smith, K.A.Sloyan, R.Gazia, R.W.Eason Stress engineering and optimization of thick garnet crystal films grown by pulsed laser deposition Crystal Growth & Design 2011 Vol.11(4) pp.1098-1108 Electronics Letters C.C.Huang, B.Gholipour, J.Y.Ou, K.J.Knight, D.W.Hewak Electrical phase change of CVD-grown Ge-Sb-Te thin film device Electronics Letters 2011 Vol.47(4) pp.288-289 IEEE Photonics Technology Letters S.Liu, K.J.Lee, F.Parmigiani, K.Gallo, P.Petropoulos, D.J.Richardson Retiming of short pulses using quadratic cascading in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide IEEE Photonics Technology Letters 2011 Vol.23(2) pp.94-96 ISSN: 1041-1135

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Z.Zhang, A.J.Boyland, J.K.Sahu, W.A.Clarkson, M.Ibsen High-power single-frequency thulium-doped fiber DBR laser at 1943 nm IEEE Photonics Technology Letters 2011 Vol.23(7) pp.417-419 R.Slavík, F.Parmigiani, L.Grüner-Nielsen, D.Jakobsen, S.Herstrøm, P.Petropoulos, D.J.Richardson Stable and efficient generation of high repetition rate (>160 GHz) subpicosecond optical pulses IEEE Photonics Technology Letters 2011 Vol.23(9) pp.540-542 Journal of Laser Micro/Nanoengineering C.Holmes, L.G.Carpenter, H.L.Rogers, J.C.Gates, P.G.R.Smith Physical sensitivity of silica micro-cantilevers fabricated using direct UV writing and micromachining Journal of Laser Micro/Nanoengineering 2011 Vol.6(1) pp.26-30 Journal of Lightwave Technology A.J.Boyland, A.S.Webb, S.Yoo, F.H.Mountfort, M.P.Kalita, R.J.Standish, J.K.Sahu, D.J.Richardson, D.N.Payne Optical fiber fabrication using novel gas-phase deposition technique Journal of Lightwave Technology 2011 Vol.29(6) pp.912-915 Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering C.Holmes, L.G.Carpenter, H.L.Rogers, J.C.Gates, P.G.R.Smith Quantifying the optical sensitivity of planar Bragg gratings in glass microcantilevers to physical deflection Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 2011 Vol.21 pp.035014 Journal of Optics E.Plum, K.Tanaka, W.T.Chen, V.A.Fedotov, D.P.Tsai, N.I.Zheludev A combinatorial approach to metamaterials discovery Journal of Optics 2011 Vol.13 pp.055102 (4pp) P.Wang, G.Brambilla, Y.Semenova, Q.Wu, G.Farrell A simple ultrasensitive displacement sensor based on high bend loss singlemode fibre and a ratiometric measurement system Journal of Optics 2011 Vol.13 pp.075402 Laser Physics Letters S.Yoo, A.S.Webb, A.J.Boyland, R.J.Standish, A.Dhar, J.K.Sahu Linearly polarized ytterbium-doped fiber laser in a pedestal design with aluminosilicate inner cladding Laser Physics Letters 2011 Vol.8(6) pp.453-457 Nano Letters J.Y.Ou, E.Plum, L.Jiang, N.I.Zheludev Reconfigurable photonic metamaterials Nano Letters 2011 Vol.11(5) pp.2142-2144

New Journal of Physics I.V.Shadrivov, V.A.Fedotov, D.A.Powell, Y.S.Kivshar, N.I.Zheludev Electromagnetic wave analogue of an electronic diode New Journal of Physics 2011 Vol.13(3) pp.033025 Optics Express F.Poletti, X.Feng, G.M.Ponzo, M.N.Petrovich, W.H.Loh, D.J.Richardson All-solid highly nonlinear singlemode fibers with a tailored dispersion profile Optics Express 2011 Vol.19(1) pp.66-80 K.S.Kaur, A.Z.Subramanian, Y.J.Ying, D.P.Banks, M.Feinäugle, P.Horak, V.Apostopoulos, C.L.Sones, S.Mailis, R.W.Eason Waveguide mode filters fabricated using laser-induced forward transfer technique Optics Express 2011 Vol.19(10) 9814–9819 J.Grant-Jacob, B.Mills, T.J.Butcher, R.T.Chapman, W.S.Brocklesby, J.G.Frey Gas jet structure influence on high harmonic generation Optics Express 2011 Vol.19(10) pp.9801-9806 W.Bolaños, J.J.Carvajal, X.Mateos, E.Cantelar, G.Lifante, U.Griebner, V.Petrov, V.L.Panyutin, G.S.Murugan, J.S.Wilkinson, M.Aguilo, F.Diaz Continuous-wave and Q-switched Tm-doped KY(WO4)2 planar waveguide laser at 1.84 microns Optics Express 2011 Vol.19(2) pp.1449-1454 D.Lin, S.U.Alam, P.S.Teh, K.K.Chen, D.J.Richardson Selective excitation of multiple Raman Stokes wavelengths (green-yellowred) using shaped multi-step pulses from an all-fiber OM MOPA Optics Express 2011 Vol.19(3) pp.2085-2092 Optics Letters G.S.Murugan, M.N.Zervas, Y.Panitchob, J.S.Wilkinson Integrated Nd-doped borosilicate glass microsphere laser Optics Letters 2011 Vol.36(1) pp.73-75 R.Cieslak, W.A.Clarkson Internal resonantly-enhanced frequency doubling of continuous-wave fiber lasers Optics letters 2011 Vol.36(10) pp.1896-1898

Z.L.Samson, P.Horak, K.F.MacDonald, N.I.Zheludev Femtosecond surface plasmon pulse propagation Optics Letters 2011 Vol.36(2) pp.250-252 K.Li, H.Wang, N.J.Copnor, C.B.E.Gawith, I.G.Knight, H.Pfeiffer, B.Musk, G.Moss 465 nm laser sources by intracavity frequency doubling using a 49-edgeemitters laser bar Optics Letters 2011 Vol.36(3) pp.361-363 G.Marra, R.Slavík, H.S.Margolis, S.N.Lea, P.Petropoulos, P.Gill High-resolution microwave frequency transfer over an 86-km-long optical fiber network using a mode-locked laser Optics Letters 2011 Vol.36(4) pp.511-513 Y.Wang, D.J.Richardson, G.Brambilla, X.Feng, M.N.Petrovich, M.Ding, Z.Song Intensity-measurement bend sensors based on periodically-tapered soft glass fibers Optics Letters 2011 Vol.36(4) pp.558-560 Physical Review Letters T.S.Kao, S.D.Jenkins, J.Ruostekoski, N I.Zheludev Coherent control of nanoscale light localization in metamaterial: creating and positioning isolated subwavelength energy hot spots Physical Review Letters 2011 Vol.106(8) pp.085501 Proceedings of SPIE M.N.Zervas, F.Ghiringhelli, M.K.Durkin, I.Crowe Distribution of photodarkening-induced loss in Yb-doped fiber amplifiers Proceedings of SPIE 2011 Vol.7914(79140L-1) H.Zimer, M.Kozak, A.Liem, F.Flohrer, F.Doerfel, P.Riedel, S.Linke, R.Horley, F.Ghiringhelli, S.Demoulins, M.N.Zervas, J.Kirchhof, S.Unger, S.Jetschke, T.Peschel, T.Schreiber Fibers and fiber-optic components for high power fiber lasers Proceedings of SPIE 2011 Vol.7914(791414-1) (Invited) M.N.Zervas, A.Marshall, J.Kim Effective absorption in cladding-pumped fibers Proceedings of SPIE 2011 Vol.7914(79141T-1) Sensors and Actuators A C.Holmes, J.C.Gates, P.G.R.Smith Integrated optical differential pressure transducers achieved using thin buckled silica membranes and direct UV written planar Bragg gratings Sensors and Actuators A 2011

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Dr Eric Plum (Photographer Andy Vowels)

“Our world-leading research teams are shaping the future, working with a wide range of industries to develop new technologies for communication, healthcare, transport, energy and the environment.”

PhD student Helen Rogers (Photographer Andy Vowels)

Work with us

Study with us

There is a long history of discovery and innovation at the ORC and we are well aware that collaborations with other organisations have been fundamental to our success.

Photonics has helped to change the world in extraordinary ways; powering the internet, navigating airliners, correcting vision and protecting the environment.

We are always open to new and interesting collaborations where a combination of expertise is mutually beneficial.

If you are part of an academic or industrial research organisation with a national or international reputation, then we would be very interested in hearing from you.

The areas that we are currently working on can be fully explored through the research section of our website. However, we are also interested in exploring new areas, and not all of our most recent directions will have made it onto our website.

If you are interested in joining the vibrant and friendly team at the ORC please contact us at light@orc.southampton.ac.uk

The Mountbatten building (Photographer Andy Vowels)

About the ORC

The Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton is one of the largest university-based research groups entirely devoted to optoelectronics in the world and has maintained a position at the Our world-leading research teams are shaping forefront of photonics research for over the future, working with a wide range of four decades. industries to develop new technologies for communications, healthcare, transport Its long and well-established track record in and energy. the fields of optical fibres, lasers, waveguides, devices and optoelectronic materials has We are looking for the photonics pioneers fostered innovation, enterprise, crossof the future to join our vibrant research boundary and multi-disciplinary activities. community. Our postgraduate students are an integral and vital part of the research The Optoelectronics Research Centre, in staff at the ORC. Some of the world’s leading conjunction with Electronics and Computer scientists are based at the ORC and as a PhD Science, has put forward an expression of student you’ll have the opportunity to work interest to host one of the new Government with them in our state-of-the-art facilities Technology and Innovation Centres (TICS). and make some history.

“We are delighted to see that Photonics has been chosen as a potential area in which a TIC For further details please visit might be funded,” said Professor David Payne, www.orc.southampton.ac.uk/ ORC Director. phdprogram.html For further information visit www.innovateuk.org/content/news/ shortlist-signposts-potential-areas-fornew-techno.ashx Please visit our website for more news, technological breakthroughs, research updates and people profiles www.orc.southampton.ac.uk For further information and enquiries please email light@orc.southampton.ac.uk

Keep in touch Many of our alumni move around a lot and it is difficult to keep a record of where everybody is. If you have recently moved, or are about to, we would be grateful if you could email alumni@orc.southampton.ac.uk with your new contact details or register online at www.orc.southampton.ac.uk/alumni.html Join us on LinkedIn to receive details of forthcoming reunions and ORC events.

Log in to LinkedIn and search for Optoelectronics Research Centre.

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Light Times | issue 2 2011

Light Times | issue 2 2011

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www.orc.southampton.ac.uk light@orc.southampton.ac.uk +44(0)23 8059 4521