Research and Technologies at AIPT

Advanced fibre grating devices and applications

Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT) at Aston University is one of the largest photonics research centres in the UK, with 90+ staff and current grant funding amounting to more than £15million. AIPT’s success has been built on significant achievements in high-speed optical transmission and processing, nonlinear photonics, fibre grating technology, femtosecond laser material processing techniques, nano-photonics, fibre lasers, bio and medical photonics, and in various fibre optic sensing applications. AIPT has an impressive portfolio of project funding, industrial and international collaborations, five spin-out companies, highly cited research papers and >60 patents, all demonstrating excellence in the photonics research and technology field. Much of AIPT’s research is carried out in collaboration with industrial partners ranging from large companies, such as BT, France Telecom, BAE Systems, Airbus and Corning, to a number of SMEs.

Prof Lin Zhang was the Head of Electrical, Electronic and Power Engineering Department at Aston University from 2013 to 2017, and the Deputy Director of AIPT from 2012 to 2019. Her research interests are primarily in the field of optical fibre grating devices and applications in optical communications, signal processing, biophotonics, fibre lasers and smart sensing. Her research output so far includes ~480 research papers published in peer-review journals and international conferences with a total of ~12,900 citations and h-index 59.

Talk abstract: This talk will give an overview of the research activities of the AIPT with the emphasis on fabrication techniques and applications of advanced optical fibre grating devices created in normal and special optical fibres by UV- and femtosecond-laser inscription. A range of novel optical fibre grating devices and systems based on Bragg, long-period and tilted structure fabricated in speciality fibres will be discussed. The most recent development in tilted gratings as unique polarisation devices and their function in fibre laser and sensing systems will be reviewed.  

Professor Lin Zhang

Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Aston University

UK