EU grants put UK Photonics Research Group on stronger wavelength
Three EU grants totalling more than EUR 1 million have been awarded to the Photonics Research Group at Aston University, UK, to research novel ways of using fibre optic cables in engineering, medicine and telecommunications. The funding was awarded through the EU's Sixth Framework Human Resources and Mobility Programme, known as Marie Curie Actions, to experts from the Russian Academy of Science, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and Northwestern University, USA. 'These three grants are a strong indication that there is something very special about the work we are doing here,' said Professor 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. They will join the Photonics Research Group to help with three of its projects aimed at perfecting new optical technologies. In the first of the projects, the specialists at Aston's Photonics Research Group will use ultraviolet laser radiation to create sensing devices known as fibre Bragg gratings inside plastic optical fibres. These will mean that fibres can be used to accurately measure temperature inside the human body or determine stresses and strains in aircraft wings and bridges. The major goal of the second project will be to develop 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 technology will promote miniaturisation of solid state lasers and will facilitate their integration into electronic systems. The third project targets prototype all-optical regeneration solutions related both to optical fibre networks and optical interconnects. 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 10 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 its results in Hong Kong, Brazil and France. According to the European Commission, the world market for products enabled by photonics stood at €150 billion in 2006. 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.
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