Hollow Core Fibre Photonics

Project overview

Optical fibres lie at the heart of our increasingly technological society. For example, they support the internet and mobile communications that we all now take for granted, they save lives through medical diagnosis and interventions using fibre-optic endoscopes, and they enable the mass production of a huge array of commercial products through fibre laser based materials processing.

Within our Airguide Photonics research programme we aim to translate Hollow Core Fibre (HCF) technology from the research lab to a deployable fibre technology, unleashing innovative applications across a broad range of science and engineering fields.

“The ORC has been pioneering the development of fibre optics and advancing communications technology for many years and has an impressive record of using research funding to collaborate with academic and industry partners. The AirGuide Photonics programme promises to push at the boundaries once more. We are confident that the research will uncover more discoveries and lead to world-leading innovations.”
Professor Tom Rodden - Deputy Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor David Richardson FREng, FRS

Research interests

Hollow Core Optical Fibres
Optical Communications
High Power Fibre Lasers

Connect with David

Email: djr@orc.soton.ac.uk

Other researchers

Professor Sir David Payne KBE CBE FRS FREng

Professor of Photonics

Research interests

high-power fibre lasers
spun fibres for control of dispersion, now extensively used in undersea fibre cables
the Er/Yb cladding-pumped fibre amplifier used for cable television distribution

Connect with Sir David

Email: dnp@orc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Jayanta Sahu

Professorial Fellow-Research

Connect with Jayanta

Email: jks@orc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Periklis Petropoulos

Professor

Research interests

Optical communications,
All-optical signal processing,
Novel fibre and waveguide technologies

Connect with Periklis

Email: pp@orc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Radan Slavik

Professorial Fellow-Research

Research interests

In recent years, there have been significant developments in lightwave technologies enabling wide exploitation of optical phase, as exemplified in particular by the dawn of Coherent Optical Communications - the key enabler for the growth in the capacity of the Internet. This is due to many key breakthroughs in laser technology (low-noise low-cost and compact lasers), new revolutionary concepts that have recently been introduced (e.g., the Optical Frequency Comb, the significance of which was demonstrated by the award of a Nobel Prize in 2005), and significant advances in electronics that, thanks to the increased speeds now possible, can accommodate the processing of very complicated coherent (amplitude + phase) signals.
Another exciting field is Hollow Core Optical fibres, which guides ligth in a central hole surrounded by a microstructure that prevents light escaping from the core. Although known for over 20 years, only very recently their fabrication enabled them to use their full potential.

Connect with Radan

Email: R.Slavik@soton.ac.uk