Optoelectronics and Fibre Optics Group
| Institute: | University of Strathclyde |
|---|---|
| Address: |
16 Richmond Street G1 1XQ Glasgow United Kingdom |
| Website: | http://www.strath.ac.uk/ |
| Contact person | culshaw brian |
| Presentation: | SU.pdf (44.76 kB) |
Description
The University of Strathclyde (UoS) is one of the two long established Universities in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Its main mission is to be a “Place of Useful Learning” and this philosophys underlies all of the University’s teaching and research activity. The University of Strathclyde’s Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department is the largest Department in the UK with a Grade 5 research rating awarded after the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise which was conducted by the UK’s University funding organizations. Two areas of the Department’s research activity are relevant to this proposal; Optoelectronic/ Photonic Sensors and Systems and Microsystems. The first of these is under the leadership of Professor Brian Culshaw, and concentrates on activities related to optical guided wave sensors research, particularly the use of optical fibres in sensors and sensor systems. Current projects concentrate on the applications of optical fibres for structural monitoring, distributed gas sensing and general strain sensing. In support of the fibre optic sensing research, there is an important sub-activity on erbium doped fibre ring lasers as optical sources for fibre sensors. The second research activity under the leadership of Professor Deepak Uttamchandani concentrates on MEMS and microsystems, particularly for free-space micro-optical applications. Multilayer polysilicon and silicon-on-insulator technologies from commercial foundries have been used to realize a range of micro-optical devices including modulators, tunable filters and variable attenuators.
Both research activities highlighted above are supported by state-of-the-art measurement and characterisaion hardware to be expected in well-equipped photonic laboratories. In addition, the groups operate a 248nm excimer laser system for projection micromachining and a pair of high-speed imaging cameras dedicated to ultrafast mechanical analysis of micromechanical systems. Funding is being raised to purchase a dynamic MEMS analysis tool, and the group expects to be one of the first in Europe to be equipped with this tool. All of these tools are relevant to the scope of the NEMO proposal, particularly in relation to the work-packages concerning optical MEMS/microsystems.
