Research group

Smart Lasers and Special Fibres

Laser lights

Our research vision is to revolutionise manufacturing in the digital era by developing the next generation of reconfigurable, scalable, resilient, power efficient, disruptive ‘smart’ fibre laser tools for the demanding medical and biosciences sectors.

About

Fibre laser and special fibre technologies have impacted a number of industrial sectors, enhancing manufacturing, healthcare, defence, communication, and energy systems. They have provided the advanced manufacturing, imaging and sensing tools to revolutionise entire industries such as the car, aerospace, oil, defence and civil engineering industries. And yet, continued advancements in fibre and fibre laser technologies are expected to drive further innovations and transformative applications in the future.

Our research will focus on removing the technology and science roadblocks, develop novel optical materials, address the underlying fundamental physics to fully exploit the massive parallelism offered uniquely by the optical fibre technology, utilise the vectorial nature of light by optimally combining spatial, polarisation and wavelength attributes – and embed advanced deep-learning algorithms to solve the multi-dimensional complexity control problem.   

Our advanced fibre/fibre laser technology can also contribute into the promising quantum revolution by providing innovative solutions for quantum metrology and the development of precise and ultra-stable sources for quantum-computing. Innovative specialty fibres, supplemented by advanced AI for control and interrogation, can also revolutionise smart distributed fibre sensor systems, for the aerospace, the traditional oil and the fast-growing renewable energy industries.    

Our longer-term research ambition is to catapult specialty fibres and fibre lasers to places no laser has been before, thus enabling them to not only manufacture our future goods and make UK a more prosperous nation, but also to protect against aerial threats, build the next generation of efficient, compact particle accelerators, clean-up space debris, treat nuclear waste, and all in all make the world a better, cleaner, greener, and safer place.

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Ali Masoudi

Senior Research Fellow
Connect with Ali

Professor Andy Clarkson

Professor of Optoelectronics Research
Connect with Andy

Dr Anoma Mccoy

Connect with Anoma

Dr Arindam Halder

Res Fellow in Optical Fibre Fabrication
Connect with Arindam

Dr Ben Mills

Principal Research Fellow
Connect with Ben

Professor Gilberto Brambilla

Associate Dean International
Connect with Gilberto

Dr Jacob Mackenzie

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Waveguide amplifiers and lasers
  • Cryogenically cooled lasers for peak and average power scaling
  • Ultra-fast high repetition rate compact lasers

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jacob

Dr James A. Grant-Jacob

Senior Research Fellow

Research interests

  • high harmonic generation and phase retrieval
  • laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT)
  • pulsed laser deposition, laser fabrication, laser machining
Connect with James A.

Professor Jayanta Sahu

Professorial Fellow-Research

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jayanta

Professor Johan Nilsson

Professor of Optoelectronics
Connect with Johan

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

Contact us

Email Professor Michalis Zervas with your enquiries.