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QEP Group newsletter February 2014
IOP Quantum Electronics
and Photonics Group
NEWSLETTER
Issue no. 02
February
2014
Contents
Chair’s report 2
Main Article: Photonics – the
future of UK growth 3
Focus article: Fibre lasers 5
QEP News 6
Conference reports 9
Forthcoming Events 12
Prizes and Bursaries 15
Notices 16
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
2
Chair’s report A photon goes to check-in at the airport: Check-in attendant: “Are you taking any luggage with you on this flight?” Photon: “No, I’m travelling light…”
Happy New Year and welcome to the first
Chair’s Report of 2014, and my first in
this position. I’d like to start by thanking
the out-going chair, Prof Martin McCall,
for all his hard work over the last three
years. We also saw a number of other
committee members come to the end of
their terms last year, - Dr Pascal André, Prof Ortwin Hess, Ms Ruby
Raheem, and Dr Dmitry Skryabin – so many thanks to them for their
contributions to the work of the group. The resulting vacancies have
been filled by a number of new faces, and it is particularly good to see
that the committee now has a strong representation from industry to
reflect the practical application of what we do as a group. There are
too many names to list elegantly here – please see the new committee
list at the end of the Newsletter.
Undoubtedly, the highlight of 2014 for the group will be
Photon14, the latest in the series of biennial conferences run jointly
with the Optical Group. This time the conference will be held at
Imperial College London from the 1st to the 4
th of September, and we
hope to have even more than the 400+ delegates who came to
Photon 12 in Durham and Photon 10 in Southampton. The conference
website is already up and running (http://www.photon.org.uk) and
describes a wide-ranging programme and an impressive set of plenary
and invited speakers – mark it in you diary! An innovation for Photon
14 is the award of a new ‘Optics and Photonics Prize’ by the IoP. This
will be awarded every two years for ‘an outstanding contribution to the
optics and photonics community in the UK’ and the winner will
normally receive their prize at the Photon conference that year and
also give one of the plenary talks. Nominations can be made by any
member of either the Optics or QEP groups and the winner will be
selected jointly by committees of both groups.
David Binks.
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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Main Article: Photonics – The Future of
UK Growth By Dr John Lincoln,Chief Executive, UK Photonics Leadership Group
The Photonics Leadership Group (PLG)
was reformed a year ago to coordinate
expert input into government, support
agencies, users and developers of
photonics to maximising the growth of UK
photonics. Those of us engaged with
researching, developing and selling
photonics on a daily basis are familiar with
the variety of uses to which photonics can
be applied. Many of us have seen how
applications for photonics have grown
rapidly in the last decades and become assimilated into day-to-day
products and services. Photonics, from optical fibre to lasers, lighting
and displays, is increasingly at the heart of the latest innovative
products, whether it’s enabling high frequency financial trading, the
manufacture of lighter safer cars, improved surgery, saving energy or
just keeping us entertained where and when we wish.
However, you won’t find many products proudly displaying an
“enabled by light” sticker. By its very nature of being an enabling
technology, the photonics content is often hidden, not just from the
end user but also from those looking to promote innovation.
Why does this matter? Since the financial crisis of 2009 governments
have being looking to refocus their economies and foster greater
balance between services, especially financial services and
manufacturing. Significant attention is being paid to how to make the
most of our fantastic research capability, accelerate innovation of this
into products and embed high value manufacturing jobs in the UK and
Europe.
However, governments are not flush with cash and most focus their
support where it will have greatest impact. This should be on the
technologies that drive innovation, but the public also needs to
John Lincoln
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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understand what they are supporting. Thus reports such as ‘The Eight
Great Technologies’ focus areas are readily accessible such as space
and robotics. But of course, if one delves into such reports one finds
plenty of photonics.
The PLG is about exposing the ‘photonics within’ and broadening the
understanding that many solutions to societal challenges will be
‘enabled by light’. Indeed the United Nations recently proclaimed
2015 'International Year of Light' . In practice, the PLG brings together
all stakeholders to make the case that targeted investment in
photonics by public agencies and private companies will leverage
further investment and generate substantial and sustainable returns to
both investors and society.
As part of this drive the PLG is currently identifying areas where there
is significant international growth potential for UK photonics. As such
the PLG is aiming to add a UK twist to “Towards 2020 - Photonics
Driving Economic Growth in Europe”, the multiannual roadmap from
Photonics21, the European photonics platform, which is steering
future EU funding from Horizon2020. We will be highlighting areas of
relevance to UK, clarifying key opportunities, linking these to UK
strengths and recommending what should be done to maximise these
opportunities. As with many other white papers and discussion
documents this analysis will be available for public comment on the
PhotonicsUK website as it is developed.
UK photonics is already a substantial industry employing 70,000
people, twice as many as the space sector and contributing over
£10bn to the economy. What’s more photonics is growing rapidly at 6-
8% a year, much faster than the rest of industry and other higher
profile sectors such as the pharmaceutical manufacturing (which is
shrinking). Those of us working in the field should be proud of our
achievements, be vocal in highlighting our impact and encourage
others to join us in an industry whose growth and impact provides
fantastic career opportunities. Working together we will continue to
grow UK photonics as a power house for research, development and
production.
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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Focus Article: Ytterby, erbium and
rare-earth doped fibre lasers
By Paul Harrison.
Ytterby, a small town in Sweden, close to Stockholm, proved to be the
first source of several elements which although relatively abundant as
compounds proved to be elusive in their elemental form and even
more difficult to extract. However, the early mineralogists such as
Gadolin and Mosander were amongst the first people responsible for
separating and identifying yttrium, erbium, terbium and ytterbium
during the years leading-up to the Scandinavian mining heyday during
the 1890s. In principle, each of these elements was named after this
small town nearest to where the quarry rich in these mineral sources
were found:
yttrium – 1794 Johan Gadolin
erbium and terbium – 1843 Carl G. Mosander
ytterbium – 1878 Jean-Charles Galissard de Marignac
Today, these elements, which found little use previously, now form the
basis of improved fibre-optic communications.
As the volume of digital information rises on the world-wide web,
higher bandwidth fibre-optic cables are required with fewer repeaters,
so as to cope with the explosive growth in information exchange.
Rapid developments of fibre lasers now offer several other distinct
advantages as well, over the more conventional bench-top laser
varieties. Recent improvements have increased both the efficiency
and power available with fibre lasers by the use of these rare-earth
dopants. In addition, extremely efficient coupling of light into the fibre
allows 80%, or more, of the laser pump energy to be turned into light
energy.
Furthermore, SMEs are now well positioned to take new products
based on these compact, efficient light sources and to promote them
into new application areas. One of these companies, Fianium, was
founded out of the ORC in Southampton by academic Anatoly
Grudinin, who realised the commercial potential of these intriguing
material systems. Recent advances by UK companies such as
Fianium have brought down the costs of achieving short laser pulse
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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durations of high-power. Basic capabilities for lab-based photonics
include coherent light generation across the whole transparency range
between 350 – 2,400 nm wavelengths, which is typical of silica fibres.
Increased spectral coverage up to 4,000 nm has been demonstrated
recently. Today’s fibre lasers may have typical pulse durations of 10 to
20 ps, with pulse energy levels of around 50 µJ, although leading-
edge technologies can further reduce this pulse duration figure down
to 0.1 ps.
Application areas of these ultrafast short pulse length fibre lasers
include:
High power, chirped-pulse amplification systems
Micromachining (MEMS)
Medical procedures – such as eye surgery
Fluorescence microscopy and imaging
Infra-red spectroscopy and trace gas detection
Fibre X-UV sources (focused intensity ~1013
W cm−2
).
New areas of interest are being addressed as the available fibre-laser
power is increased. A series of review articles formed a special edition
of Nature Photonics in November 2013.
QEP News
IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Quantum electronics 2013 award
The award ceremony for the biennial Young Scientist Prizes in Quantum Electronics of IUPAP (the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics) was held on 05 December 2013 at the OPTIC 2013, Chung-Li, Taiwan. The 2013 Prize in Quantum Electronics (Applied Aspects) went to Assistant Professor Nick Vamivakas, of the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester “for his seminal contributions to extending the domain of experimental quantum optics from atomic to solid-state systems.”. The Prize in Quantum Electronics (Fundamental Aspects) went to Dr Kin Fai Mak of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science Laboratory for Atomic and Solid State Physics. Dr Mak was recognized “for his ground-breaking contributions to the measurement and physical understanding of the novel optical properties of atomically thin 2D materials”.
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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On behalf of Commission C17 (Quantum Elec-tronics), Professor Ci-Ling Pan (National Tsing Hua University and Commission Member) read the citations and presented the prizes to these outstanding award-ees. In addition to attending OPTIC 2013, the awardees visited and presented talks at a number of top institutions in Taiwan.
In related news, Andrea Alù, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics 2013 "for ground breaking work in metamaterials and plasmonics, and for the introduction of the concept of scattering-cancellation-based metamaterial cloaking."
2013 EPS Prizes
The 2013 Prizes for Quantum Electronics awarded by the European
Physical Society were awarded to Federico Capasso (Harvard) “for
seminal contributions to the invention and demonstration of the
quantum cascade laser”, and to Maciej Lewenstein (ICFO Barcelona)
“for outstanding contributions to several areas of theoretical quantum
optics and to the use of quantum gases for quantum information and
to attosecond optics.” (http://qeod.epsdivisions.org/)
Increased European funding for Photonics
Photonics is being given an increasing high profile in the corridors of
Brussels, as part of the new Horizon2020 funding platform. (See
“highlighting Photonics in horizon2020”) This includes the
establishment of a €1.5bn Public Private Partnership (PPP) to provide
a long-term investment commitment by both the photonics industry
and the European Commission that will secure Europe's industrial
From left to right: Professor Ci-Ling Pan,
Dr Kin-Fai Mak, Professor Nick
Vamivakas, Professor C. C. Lee,
General Chair of OPTIC 2013
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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leadership and economic growth in photonics. The first Photonics calls
for proposals have also been announced, with biophotonics, solid
state lighting, and laser manufacturing featuring prominently.
International Year of Light 2015 [linked to:
International Year of Light announced for 2015
On 20 December 2013, The United Nations (UN) General Assembly
68th Session proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and
Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015).
Supported by 100 partners from
more than 85 countries, and
coordinated by the European
Physical Society under the
auspices of the United Nations,
the International Year of Light is
a global initiative highlighting to the citizens of the world the
importance of light and light-based technologies in their lives, for their
futures, and for the development of society. As the Chairman of the
IYL 2015 Steering Committee John Dudley explains: "An International
Year of Light is a tremendous opportunity to ensure that international
policymakers and stakeholders are made aware of the problem-
solving potential of light technology. We now have a unique
opportunity to raise global awareness of this.”
PLG recognises service to UK Photonics
Alastair Wilson was presented with token of appreciation by the Photonics Leadership Group at its meeting on Monday 20 Jan. 2014 on behalf of the UK photonics industry to mark his forthcoming retirement after 40 years dedication to furthering the cause of Photonics in the UK. Alastair has been Director of
Alastair Wilson receiving a
presentation from John Lincoln
(left) and Chris Dorman (right) of
the Photonics Leadership Group
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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Photonics through all the iterations of the Knowledge Transfer Net-works and for many years ran the Scottish Opto-electronics Assoc-iation, paving the way for photonics clusters across Europe. Coupled with extensive industry ex-perience Alastair has made a significant con-tribution to raising the profile of the industry and gaining support for Photonics in the UK.
As befits someone with a lifetime career in photonics the award was 3D laser engraved in glass.
Conference reports BioNanoPhotonics Symposium, 16-17 Sept 2013, Cardiff
University
This 2-day event followed a first successful meeting in 2011. The
scope of the conference was to bring together the UK research
community in the area of bio-nano-photonics at the physics/ life
science interface. The first day of the symposium focussed on
applications of nanoparticles to biology, while the second day was on
the subject of biophotonics. On each day there were two Keynote
speakers of outstanding international reputation, 2 invited speakers
from major UK groups and the rest were contributed talks and posters.
See also www.bionanophoto.org.uk
The workshop was well attended by major groups in the UK, with a
total of 61 attendees (16 students, 45 non-students), and feedback
was very positive. The international invited speakers gave excellent
keynote talks and participated to the full 2-days event. The intention is
to keep this event going as a regular bi-annual symposium.
MPAGS Summer School, 15-19 Sept 2013, Granada. The QEP group supported the MPAGS Granada summer school
organised within the framework of the Midlands Physics Alliance and
the University of Granada. It featured talks by world-leading scientists,
highly pedagogical speakers (C. Adams, K. Bongs, P. Bouyer, S.
Diehl, S. Jochim, A. Sanpera, K. Sengstock) covering areas from cold
atoms and molecules, quantum optics, condensed matter physics,
quantum information and quantum interference and precision
measurements. The school was attended by 60 enthusiastic
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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particpants from UK and all over Europe. The poster prize went to
Sandrine van Franck from Vienna University of Technology.
QUAMP summer school
Swansea University, September 8th
– 12th
, 2013
QuAMP2013 had over 100 delegates, and a similar number of
contributions. Headline talks were given by Paul Corkum, Jeffrey
Hangst and Jeremy O'Brien, with the latter being presented with the
IOP Bates Prize. The 2014 QuAMP Summer School will be held in
Durham/Newcastle at their Joint Quantum Institute.
Transforming Transformation Optics
Imperial College London, December 17th
2013 This one day workshop, organised by Prof. Martin McCall and Dr Paul Kinsler, highlighted recent progress in the UK Transformation Optics
The MPAGS summer school, September 2013
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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(TO) community. It was sponsored by both the IoP's QEP group and the Journal of Optics.
The programme featured talks by John Pendry & Martin McCall (Imperial), Ulf Leonhardt (Weizmann), Allan Boardman (Salford), Jensen Li (Birmingham), Rhiannon Mitchell-Thomas (QMUL), and Simon Horsley (Exeter), so the full spectrum of UK expertise was represented. In a variation from a traditional format, Paul Kinsler (Imperial) also highlighted the ways TO can be used in outreach, and proposed a range of future directions for TO research.
Nanolight Symposium,
University of Strathclyde, Sept 2nd
– 3rd
, 2013
This interdisciplinary two day symposium, partially supported by the
IOP and the University of Strathclyde, was attended by roughly 40
physicists, chemists and biologists, working on control and application
of light at the nanoscale. There were four invited speakers, two for
each day who gave talks on "Seeing and using surface plasmons at
the nanoscale" (Prof. Jean-François Masson),"Plasmonic
manipulation of molecular fluorescence in optical imaging" (Prof.
David Richards),"Near-Field Optical Visualization of Subwavelength
Optical Fields and Chiralities in Metal Nanostructures", (Prof. H.
Okamoto) and "Second Harmonic Generation from Metallic
Nanoparticles : Playing with Shapes to Unravel the Origin of the
Response" (Prof. Pierre-François Brevet). The student presentation
prize at the meeting was awarded to Mr. Peter Reader-Harris
Transforming Transformation Optics, December 2013
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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(University of St. Andrews) . The feedback from attendees and
presenter was very positive and the event will be repeated in two
years time.
Forthcoming Events
Photonics21 Annual Meeting 2014
Hotel Le Plaza, Brussels, March 27th
and 28th
2014
Photonics21 is the European Technology Platform for photonics. The
platform represents photonics research & innovation priorities at
European level and aims to implement a common photonics strategy
for Europe. The meeting will include a keynote address by the Vice
President of the European Commission and sessions discussing
opportunities for photonics Research and Development in
Horizon2020. For more information and to register attendance visit
www.photonics21.org
Semiconductor and Integrated OptoElectronics (SIOE) Cardiff University, April 29th-1st May 2014
The conference aims to provide an informal atmosphere for the
discussion of research in semiconductor optoelectronics. A special
interest of the meeting is the design, fabrication and applications of
NanoLight Symposium, September 2013
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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semiconductor optoelectronic circuits. To preserve the informality of
the meeting, attendance is normally limited to about 100. The First call
for papers has been announced.
Colloidal Quantum Dots and Nanocrystals Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre, Manchester, July 14
th -
15th
, 2014
This meeting, organised by the QEP group, will discuss the latest
results in the synthesis, characterisation and modelling of colloidal
quantum dots and other nano crystals, and their applications. This will
be a lunchtime-to-lunchtime event, with the meeting and accom-
modation co-located at the same venue. Further information
To register contact: Joanne Hemstock, tel: 44 (0)20 7470 4800, email:
CSNDSP: 9th IEEE/IET International Symposium on
Communication Systems, Networks and DSP
Manchester Metropolitan University, 23-25 July 2014
wwww.csndsp14.com
Photon 14 Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, September 1-4, 2014
Photon14 is the largest optics conference in the UK and the seventh
in the series; following Photon02 (Cardiff), Photon04 (Glasgow),
Photon06 (Manchester), Photon08 (Edinburgh), Photon10
(Southampton) and Photon14 (Durham). Photon14 will be held at
Imperial College London. Photon is an umbrella conference series
embracing a number of important and interconnected constituent
conferences with fascinating overlaps and a common social
programme.
www.photon.org.uk
contact: Jenny Bremner, tel: +44 (0)20 74704800, email: [email protected]
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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Faraday Discussion 174: Organic Electronics and
Photonics Glasgow, September 8
th – 10
th, 2014
This Discussion encompasses a range of topical subjects, centred
around the theme of organic electronics and photonics. It will bring
together experts in chemistry, physics, biology and electronic
engineering and thereby provide a multidisciplinary platform for
debating current and future work in organic electronics. For more
information see the Conference website.
QuAMP summer school Durham University, September 15
th – 19
th, 2014
The School features tutorial-style lectures from a range of
distinguished international speakers, introducing themes of broad
interest in the areas of quantum, atomic, molecular and plasma
physics, providing an introduction to topics for the uninitiated and
deepening the knowledge of more experienced researchers.
Organised by: IOP Atomic and Molecular Interactions, Molecular
Physics, Plasma Physics, Quantum Electronics and Photonics and
Quantum Optics, Quantum Information and Quantum Control Groups
Contact: Amy Fitzgerald, [email protected]
Photonex 2014
Ricoh Arena, Coventry, October 15th
– 16th
, 2014
Photonex is the UK’s largest exhibition that brings together industry
and research to source the latest components, instruments and
equipment, to develop business relationships and to research
solutions and examine applications for photonics and technology for
manufacturing. The 2014 Conference and Industry Programme, run by
Enlighten Meetings with its partners, covers application and
technology advances, innovations and emerging technologies.
Contact: Laurence Devereux, email: [email protected],
www.photonex.org
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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International conferences
SPIE Photonics Europe 2014, Brussels, Belgium, April 14-17, 2014,
http://spie.org/photonics-europe.xml
META’14, the 5th International Conference on Metamaterials,
Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics, Nanyang Technological
University (NTU), Singapore, May 20, 2014 – May 23, 2014
http://www.metaconferences.org/ocs
CLEO:2014 – Laser Science to Photonic Applications, San Jose,
USA, June 8-13, 2014, www.cleoconference.org
CEWQO 2014: 21st Central European Workshop on Quantum
Optics, Brussels, Belgium, June 23-27, 2014,
http://cewqo14.ulb.ac.be
SPIE Optics and Photonics 2014, San Diego, USA, August 17-21,
2014, http://spie.org/optics-photonics.xml
Prizes and Bursaries
QEP group Thesis Prize 2014, call for nominations
This annual prize recognizes students who have conducted doctoral
research of an exceptional standard in the field of quantum electronics
and photonics. Winners receive an award of £500. The prize is open
to students who successfully completed their PhD examination during
the 2013 calendar year. Details of the nomination procedure can be
found on the prize web page. The closing date for nominations is 31st
March 2014.
The prize is supported by Laser Physics Letters and Laser Physics
journals (published by IOP Publishing on behalf of Astro Ltd).
QEP Group newsletter February 2014
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Notices
QEP Group members are invited to submit notices for inclusion in the
August 2014 issue. Submissions should reach the QEP committee by
July 4th.
Your QEP Committee:
Dr David Binks (Chair), University of Manchester
Dr Paul Blanchard, BAE Systems
Professor Paola Borri, University of Cardiff
Dr Stephen Elsmere, AWE
Dr Wladek Forysiak, Oclaro Inc
Dr Paul Harrison, Imagination Technologies
Dr Susannah Heck, Oclaro Inc
Professor Martin McCall, Imperial College London
Dr Jarlath McKenna (Secretary and Treasurer), IOP Publishing
Dr Kevin MacDonald, University of Southampton
Dr Francesco Papoff, University of Strathclyde
Professor David Ritchie, University of Cambridge
Dr Jason Smith (Newsletter Editor), University of Oxford
The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Institute of Physics, except where explicitly stated. The Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, W1B 1NT, UK. Tel: 020 7470 4800 Fax: 020 7470 4848