Open menu
View all research projects
Research project

Airguide 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 researcher

Professor David Richardson FREng, FRS

Research interests

  • Hollow Core Optical Fibres
  • Optical Communications
  • High Power Fibre Lasers
Other researchers

Professor Sir David Payne KBE CBE FRS FREng

Professor of Photonics

Research interests

  • Many and varied across photonics, particularly in optical fibre design and fabrication, optical materials, optical sensing, and high-power fibre lasers.

Professor Jayanta Sahu

Professorial Fellow-Research

Professor Periklis Petropoulos

Professor

Research interests

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

Professor Radan Slavik

Professorial Fellow-Research

Research interests

  • Fibre optics
  • Ultrastable fibre interferometers
  • High-accuracy measurement

Professor Francesco Poletti

Professorial Fellow-Research

Research interests

  • Hollow Core Optical Fibres: design and fabrication
  • Optical Communications: high capacity and low latency
  • Novel active and passive optical fibres

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Fibres and Communications

We develop new fibre technologies and explore their applications in areas including communications, sensing, lasers, materials processing and imaging.

Advanced Fibre Applications

We are dedicated to exploring advanced applications of cutting-edge optical fibres, with a special emphasis on hollow core fibres. These fibres are designed and fabricated by the Zepler Institute Microstructured Fibre group, while our group focuses on aspects of these newly-emerging fibres from the ‘user perspective’.

Hollow Core Fibre

We are world-leaders in Hollow Core Optical Fibre research. Our ground-breaking fibres guide light at vacuum speeds and unprecedented intensities, enabling advances in telecoms, manufacturing, and sensing.

Optical Fibre Communications

We find new ways to use and apply optical technologies in telecommunications.

Silica Fibre Fabrication

We conduct fundamental and applied research in the field of optical fibre technology.

Research outputs

Hundred-meter-scale, kilowatt peak-power, near-diffraction-limited, mid-infrared pulse delivery via the low-loss hollow-core fiber
Qiang Fu,
Yudi Wu,
Ian A. Davidson,
Lin Xu,
Gregory T. Jasion,
Sijing Liang,
Shuichiro Rikimi,
Francesco Poletti,
Natalie V. Wheeler,
& David J. Richardson
, 2022 , Optics Letters , 47 (20) , 5301--5304
DOI: 10.1364/OL.473230
Type: article
DV-QKD coexistence with 1.6 Tbps classical channels over hollow core fibre
Obada Alia,
Rodrigo S. Tessinari,
Sima Bahrani,
Thomas D. Bradley,
Hesham Sakr,
Kerrianne Harrington,
John R. Hayes,
Yong Chen,
Periklis Petropoulos,
David J. Richardson,
Francesco Poletti,
George T. Kanellos,
Reja Nejabati,
& Dimitra Simeonidou
, 2022 , IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology , 40 (16) , 5522--5529
DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2022.3180232
Type: article
Hollow-core fiber delivery of broadband mid-infrared light for remote spectroscopy
Kerr Johnson,
Pablo Castro-Marin,
Carl Farrell,
Ian A. Davidson,
Qiang Fu,
Gregory T. Jasion,
Natalie V. Wheeler,
Francesco Poletti,
David J. Richardson,
& Derryck T. Reid
, 2022 , Optics Express , 30 (5) , 7044--7052
DOI: 10.1364/OE.450413
Type: article
Internal gas composition and pressure in as-drawn hollow core optical fibers
Shuichiro Rikimi,
Yong Chen,
Thomas W. Kelly,
Ian A. Davidson,
Gregory T. Jasion,
Matthew Partridge,
Kerrianne Harrington,
Thomas D. Bradley,
Austin A. Taranta,
Francesco Poletti,
Marco N. Petrovich,
David J. Richardson,
& Natalie V. Wheeler
, 2022 , IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology , 40 (14) , 4776--4785
DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2022.3164810
Type: article
The generation of 1.2 µJ pulses from a Mamyshev oscillator based on a high concentration, large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber
Di Lin,
Duanyang Xu,
Jing He,
Yutong Feng,
Zhengqi Ren,
Raghuraman Sidharthan,
Yongmin Jung,
Seongwoo Yoo,
& David J. Richardson
, 2022 , IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology , 40 (21) , 7175--7179
DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2022.3198737
Type: article
Back
to top