[UCI-CalIT2] Seminar January 27 - Photonic Crystal Fibers

Stuart A ROSS STUROSS@uci.edu
Fri, 23 Jan 2004 16:33:42 -0800


Cal-(IT)2 is a co-sponsor of the following seminar:
 

PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBRES:  
a multifaceted super-highway for light

 by

Dr. Philip Russell
Department of Physics, University of Bath


Tuesday, January 27
10:00 AM
3311 Engineering Gateway Building
UC Irvine


ABSTRACT:  Photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) have been the focus of
increasing scientific and technological interest since the first working
example was reported in 1996.  Although superficially similar to a
conventional optical fibre, PCF has a unique microstructure, consisting
of an array of microscopic holes (i.e., channels) running along its
entire length.  These holes act as optical barriers or scatterers, which
suitably arranged can "corral" light within a central core (either
hollow or made of solid glass).  The holes can range in diameter from
~25 nm to ~50 mm.  Although most PCF is formed in pure silica glass, it
has also recently been made using polymers and non-silica glasses, where
it is difficult to find compatible core and cladding materials suitable
for conventional total internal reflection guidance.  PCF supports two
guidance mechanisms: total internal reflection, in which case the core
must have a higher average refractive index than the holey cladding; and
a two-dimensional photonic bandgap, when the index of the core is
uncritical - it can be hollow or filled with material.  Light can be
controlled and transformed in these fibres with unprecedented freedom,
allowing for example the guiding of light in a hollow core, the creation
of highly nonlinear solid cores with anomalous dispersion in the visible
and the design of fibres that support only one transverse spatial mode
at all wavelengths.  The PCF concept has ushered in a new and more
versatile era of fibre optics, with a multitude of different
applications spanning many areas of science. 

Recent reviews are available in: Science 299 (358-362), 2003  and in:
Nature 424 (847-851), 2003

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SPEAKER:  Philip Russell is Professor in the Department of Physics at
the University of Bath, where he heads the Optoelectronics Group.  He
obtained his Ph.D. (1979) at the University of Oxford and subsequently
has worked in research laboratories and universities in Europe and the
USA.  His group specializes in photonic crystals and optical fibre
devices, and its work led to the formation of BlazePhotonics Ltd
(www.blazephotonics.com) in 2001, whose aim is the commercial
exploitation of photonic crystal fibre.  He has over 400 publications
and holds a substantial number of patents in many aspects of photonics.
He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and in 2000 won its
Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize for his invention of
photonic crystal fibre, first proposed in 1991.  He is the founding
chair of the Optical Society of America's Topical Meeting Series on
Bragg Gratings, Photosensitivity and Poling in Glass.  In 2002 he won
the Applied Optics Division Prize of the UK Institute of Physics.  His
work on photonic crystals (both in films and fibres) is recognized by a
continuing series of plenary, keynote and invited talks at conferences
and summer schools all over the world.