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

3

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

4

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

5

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

6

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

7

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

8

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

9

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

10

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

11

(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

12

(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

13

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:

joanne.hemstock@iop.org

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: jenny.bremner@iop.org

QEP Group newsletter February 2014

14

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, amy.fitzgerald@iop.org

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: ld@photonex.org,

www.photonex.org

QEP Group newsletter February 2014

15

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

16

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