Integrated Photonic Materials and Devices
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Optoelectronics Research Ctr (closed)
Abstract
This platform grant will underpin integrated photonics research in advanced laser sources, photonic circuits, and sensors, at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, leveraging the recent investment of >£100M in the new Mountbatten Fabrication Complex. Photonic materials and device research has been the key driver of many disruptive advances in telecommunications, healthcare, data storage, display and manufacturing, and this platform grant will provide the group with the horizon and stability to build upon its international standing to explore new high-risk, high-reward research avenues.
Integrated photonic materials and devices of the future will play a huge role in the next generation of cheaper, faster, greener, disposable, miniaturised and more versatile systems based on silica and silicon, glasses, crystal and polymer hosts, in both channel and planar geometries. The broad range of expertise within our group and our access to the unequalled brand-new planar fabrication facilities will allow us to fully explore this diverse research area. Impact will be realised through applications in compact kW-class waveguide lasers (new manufacturing techniques), pollution sensors (monitoring climate change), optical amplifiers and switches (high-speed data control), early threat detection devices (homeland security), and fast universally accessible disease screening (point-of-care medical diagnostics).
Applications for the photonic materials, processes and devices developed during this platform grant will play a key role in fields of interest to society, Industry as well as university-based research and development, and will be pursued in collaboration with both existing and newly-identified partners during the programme.
Integrated photonic materials and devices of the future will play a huge role in the next generation of cheaper, faster, greener, disposable, miniaturised and more versatile systems based on silica and silicon, glasses, crystal and polymer hosts, in both channel and planar geometries. The broad range of expertise within our group and our access to the unequalled brand-new planar fabrication facilities will allow us to fully explore this diverse research area. Impact will be realised through applications in compact kW-class waveguide lasers (new manufacturing techniques), pollution sensors (monitoring climate change), optical amplifiers and switches (high-speed data control), early threat detection devices (homeland security), and fast universally accessible disease screening (point-of-care medical diagnostics).
Applications for the photonic materials, processes and devices developed during this platform grant will play a key role in fields of interest to society, Industry as well as university-based research and development, and will be pursued in collaboration with both existing and newly-identified partners during the programme.
Planned Impact
Photonics is an underpinning technology which exploits light in applications from optical communications to chemical analysis and from data processing to precision machining. Integrated photonics aims to bring the same advantages of mass-manufacture of complex photonic systems at low cost that integrated electronics and the silicon chip brought to complex electronic systems. Where integrated electronics enabled all-pervasive consumer products such as the mobile phone, integrated photonics will impact consumer applications such as fibre-to-the-home and personal health monitoring. This project will establish a platform of advanced materials, processes and devices which will benefit:
Manufacturing industry by providing advanced materials processing techniques for photonic devices, compact high-power lasers for cutting and welding, and instrumentation for monitoring in food and drink processing,
IT systems providers and users through providing low-power integrated photonic circuits for application in fibre-to-the-home and devices such as all-optical frequency convertors for signal routing and compact optical amplifiers,
Society and regulatory bodies through optical sources for mapping greenhouse gases and monitoring water and atmospheric pollutants,
Healthcare services and the public through providing multisensor devices for infectious disease screening, hospital superbugs and markers for heart disease and genetic predisposition to disease,
Security services and military personnel by providing lightweight, compact, robust sources for standoff detection of chemical and biological species and microchips for precise specific analysis of biohazards,
Standards organisations by realising novel devices for metrology.
The potential economic impact will be realised by turning our ideas and technological advances into end-products through collaboration with new and existing industrial partners, and though spin-out activity as already pioneered by several of the investigators who have set up companies to commercialise their planar technologies. The impact for society will be pursued through continuing collaboration with government agencies, hospitals and standards bodies.
Manufacturing industry by providing advanced materials processing techniques for photonic devices, compact high-power lasers for cutting and welding, and instrumentation for monitoring in food and drink processing,
IT systems providers and users through providing low-power integrated photonic circuits for application in fibre-to-the-home and devices such as all-optical frequency convertors for signal routing and compact optical amplifiers,
Society and regulatory bodies through optical sources for mapping greenhouse gases and monitoring water and atmospheric pollutants,
Healthcare services and the public through providing multisensor devices for infectious disease screening, hospital superbugs and markers for heart disease and genetic predisposition to disease,
Security services and military personnel by providing lightweight, compact, robust sources for standoff detection of chemical and biological species and microchips for precise specific analysis of biohazards,
Standards organisations by realising novel devices for metrology.
The potential economic impact will be realised by turning our ideas and technological advances into end-products through collaboration with new and existing industrial partners, and though spin-out activity as already pioneered by several of the investigators who have set up companies to commercialise their planar technologies. The impact for society will be pursued through continuing collaboration with government agencies, hospitals and standards bodies.
Organisations
- University of Southampton (Lead Research Organisation)
- Elforlight Limited (Collaboration)
- De Beers Group (Collaboration)
- European Office of Aerospace Research & Development (EOARD) (Collaboration)
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Stratophase (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Gooch & Housego (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- United States Air Force Research Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Halma (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Element Six (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Covesion (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Feinaeugle, M.
(2014)
Laser-assisted transfer for rapid additive micro-fabrication of electronic devices
Grant-Jacob J
(2018)
Pulsed laser deposition of crystalline garnet waveguides at a growth rate of 20 µm per hour
in Surface and Coatings Technology
Grant-Jacob J
(2014)
Parametric study of the rapid fabrication of glass nanofoam via femtosecond laser irradiation
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Grant-Jacob J
(2017)
Dynamic control of refractive index during pulsed-laser-deposited waveguide growth
in Optical Materials Express
Grant-Jacob J
(2013)
Micron-scale copper wires printed using femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer with automated donor replenishment
in Optical Materials Express
Grant-Jacob J
(2015)
An 115 W Yb:YAG planar waveguide laser fabricated via pulsed laser deposition
in Optical Materials Express
Grant-Jacob, J.
(2013)
Printing of continuous copper lines using LIFT with donor replenishment
Gregory, S.A.
(2014)
Magnetic Hybrid Metamaterials
He P.J.W.
(2020)
Fabrication of paper-based microfluidic devices via local deposition of photo-polymer followed by UV curing
in 21st International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2017
He PJ
(2015)
Laser-based patterning for fluidic devices in nitrocellulose.
in Biomicrofluidics
He PJ
(2016)
Laser direct-write for fabrication of three-dimensional paper-based devices.
in Lab on a chip
He PJ
(2015)
Engineering fluidic delays in paper-based devices using laser direct-writing.
in Lab on a chip
Heath D
(2015)
Dynamic spatial pulse shaping via a digital micromirror device for patterned laser-induced forward transfer of solid polymer films
in Optical Materials Express
Heath DJ
(2015)
Rapid bespoke laser ablation of variable period grating structures using a digital micromirror device for multi-colored surface images.
in Applied optics
Heath DJ
(2017)
Sub-diffraction limit laser ablation via multiple exposures using a digital micromirror device.
in Applied optics
John AJUK
(2021)
Capillary-based reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification for cost-effective and rapid point-of-care COVID-19 testing.
in Analytica chimica acta
Kannan P
(2013)
Growth of PbSe Quantum Dots Within High-Index Lead-Phosphate Glass for Infrared Saturable Absorbers
in Journal of the American Ceramic Society
Katis IN
(2014)
Paper-based colorimetric enzyme linked immunosorbent assay fabricated by laser induced forward transfer.
in Biomicrofluidics
Lagatsky AA
(2013)
Fundamentally mode-locked, femtosecond waveguide oscillators with multi-gigahertz repetition frequencies up to 15 GHz.
in Optics express
Li B
(2016)
Joint Dimming Control and Transceiver Design for MIMO-Aided Visible Light Communication
in IEEE Communications Letters
Loiko P
(2016)
Temperature-dependent spectroscopy and microchip laser operation of Nd:KGd(WO4)2
in Optical Materials
Mackenzie J
(2013)
Er-doped planar waveguides for power amplifier applications
Mackenzie J
(2015)
Crystal Planar Waveguides, a Power Scaling Architecture for Low-Gain Transitions
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Metcalf B
(2014)
Quantum teleportation on a photonic chip
in Nature Photonics
Metcalf BJ
(2013)
Multiphoton quantum interference in a multiport integrated photonic device.
in Nature communications
Mills B
(2013)
Single-pulse multiphoton polymerization of complex structures using a digital multimirror device.
in Optics express
Mills B
(2013)
Sub-micron-scale femtosecond laser ablation using a digital micromirror device
in Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Parsonage TL
(2015)
Pulsed laser deposited diode-pumped 7.4 W Yb:Lu2O3 planar waveguide laser.
in Optics express
Parsonage, T.L.
(2013)
Doped sesquioxide growth by pulsed laser deposition for planar waveguide lasing applications
Prentice J
(2019)
Particulate reduction in PLD-grown crystalline films via bi-directional target irradiation
in Applied Physics A
RenPeng Yan
(2015)
Measuring the Elevated Temperature Dependence of Up-Conversion in Nd:YAG
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Rogers H
(2012)
Analysis of Dispersion Characteristics of Planar Waveguides via Multi-Order Interrogation of Integrated Bragg Gratings
in IEEE Photonics Journal
Shepherd D
(2016)
Ultrafast High-Repetition-Rate Waveguide Lasers
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Sloyan K
(2012)
Crystalline garnet Bragg reflectors for high power, high temperature, and integrated applications fabricated by multi-beam pulsed laser deposition
in Applied Physics Letters
Smith, P.G.R.
(2014)
Integrated optical circuits for quantum information processing
Sones C
(2014)
Rapid and mask-less laser-processing technique for the fabrication of microstructures in polydimethylsiloxane
in Applied Surface Science
Sones CL
(2014)
Laser-induced photo-polymerisation for creation of paper-based fluidic devices.
in Lab on a chip
Sones CL
(2012)
Laser-Induced Forward Transfer-printing of focused ion beam pre-machined crystalline magneto-optic yttrium iron garnet micro-discs.
in Optics express
Description | We have been exploring a wide array of materials fabrication techniques for optical devices and applications, where the key parameters are cost, size and functionality. The materials can be glass, crystal, polymer, semiconductor or insulator, and one of the main objectives of the grant was to combine such materials to produce optimised devices that have increased functionality. The work in this platform grant has spanned optics, sensing, quantum technology, healthcare, laser devices, integrated optics, biophotonics and more, and has lead to the successful funding of many follow on grants from EPSRC and other RCUK bodies. |
Exploitation Route | The outputs of the grant will be taken up by industry, other academic researchers and manufacturing companies in sectors that include healthcare, security, sensing, biotechnology, defence and the digital economy. In addition, we are hoping to start a spin-out in the area of laser-written paper-based diagnostics for point-of-care rapid diagnostics which would produce jobs and wealth creation for the UK |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Security and Diplomacy |
URL | http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/people.html?person=rwe |
Description | We have published extensively as a group, and our findings have fed forward into further substantial grant successes from RCUK, the EU and industry. As a result of work conducted in this grant, we developed technology that is on the point of being funded by a US corporate who want to get into the healthcare market. We have used IAA funding to generate publicity material, attend tradeshows, and pitch to various funders, VCs and angels. Our chosen funder, the US corporate, have indicated they will come back to us within one month, (by mid March 2020) to confirm their first round funding. We have incorporated the company in late 2017, under the name of Highfield Diagnostics, (http://highfielddiagnostics.co.uk/), and our aim is to fully spinout as soon as we hear our funding has been secured. |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology,Security and Diplomacy |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Description | EPSRC call |
Amount | £701,030 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/N018281/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2015 |
End | 03/2019 |
Description | EPSRC fellowship scheme in manufacturing - awarded to a researcher co-I emplyed on this grant |
Amount | £861,709 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/N03368X/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2016 |
End | 10/2021 |
Description | EPSRC standard grant |
Amount | £894,915 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/N004388/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2015 |
End | 10/2018 |
Description | European Office of Aerospace Res & Dev. |
Amount | £21,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | FA8655-11-1-3059 |
Organisation | European Office of Aerospace Research & Development (EOARD) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start |
Description | HIPS 2017 |
Amount | £773,734 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P025757/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | Manufactruing with Light 2 |
Amount | £586,822 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/N004388/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2015 |
End | 10/2018 |
Description | Manufacturing with light |
Amount | £292,332 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/L021390/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2014 |
End | 09/2015 |
Description | E6 |
Organisation | De Beers Group |
Department | Element Six |
Country | Luxembourg |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We used samples they provided for our laser-processing work where we machined intricate micron-sized lettering and codes onto diamond surfaces |
Collaborator Contribution | They provided samples for us to experiment with |
Impact | Publications resulted, but the company was unwilling to enter into any further dialogue due, we believe, to the extreme sensitivity of the international diamond market |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | EOARD |
Organisation | European Office of Aerospace Research & Development (EOARD) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Many talks and meetings, both in the UK and the US over aspects of their intention to improve their pulsed laser deposition set-ups. |
Collaborator Contribution | As well as a directly injection of funding, they also analysed some films we had grown as part of this research grant. |
Impact | Several papers and publications as listed separately under the publications list |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Elforlight |
Organisation | Elforlight Limited |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We have interacted with this company in a project to make thin film lasers, and they donated a laser source to us as part of the project. We used this and acknowledged their inputs and contributions in our paper acknowledgements |
Collaborator Contribution | It was a donation of a laser source that let us evaluate our samples much more effieicntly. |
Impact | outputs were in the form of publications and hence acknowledgments. they are also now part of a steering group for our follow-on project, under a new EPSRC grant. |
Start Year | 2014 |
Title | FLUID FLOW DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MAKING THE SAME |
Description | Techniques for making fluid flow devices are described. The technique is based on radiation-induced conversion of a radiation-sensitive substance from a first state to a second state. With adjustment of the radiation parameters such as power and scan speed we can control the depths of barriers that are formed within a substrate which can produce 3D flow paths. We have used this depth-variable patterning protocol for stacking and sealing of multilayer substrates, for assembly of backing layers for two-dimensional (2D) lateral flow devices and for fabrication of 3D devices. Since the 3D flow paths can be formed via a single laser- writing process by controlling the patterning parameters, this is a distinct improvement over other methods that require multiple complicated and repetitive assembly procedures. |
IP Reference | WO2017207958 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2017 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | We are intending to form a spinout based on this technology and this patent, which is first of a series of three filed |