22 January 2003 -- Researchers at the School of Informatics at the University of Wales, Bangor, have received a USD600,000 grant to continue exploring how opto-electronics can be used to create faster telecommunications networks, aid cancer research, build safer automobiles and combat terrorism.
The four year award to UWB's Opto-electronics Group by the UK government's Engineering and Physical Science Research Council supports research in nanoscale and nonlinear optical design and measurement, and allows expansion into bio-photonics and micro-system optics. Prof. K. Alan Shore, chairman of the Electronic Engineering Department, Dr. Paul Spencer and Dr. Paul Rees will lead the project.
EPSRC's funding will support UWB's ability to make significant advances in nanoscale dynamics in opto-electronic devices, intersubband nonlinear opto-electronics, semiconductor quantum computer interconnects, organic opto-electronics and biochip optical interconnects, and nanoscale material processing and optical micro-machine fabrication.
Further research into the operation of semiconductor lasers, such as Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), will make possible development of devices that can be used in fields such as environmental and medical sensing.
Telecommunications networks with data rates in the terahertz range are the goal of research into intersubband "quantum cascade" lasers. "The successful development of this new generation of lasers will enable telecommunication companies to increase the capacity of existing optical fibre networks without installing additional fibres," Professor Shore said.
New quantum technology will make possible faster and smaller computers. The Opto-electronics Group will focus on the challenges associated with interconnecting the building blocks of the first quantum computers.
Medical diagnoses and anti-terrorism measures depend on characterization and identification of biological cells. Bangor has done groundbreaking work in "biological" lab-on-a-chip technology (biochip or biofactory-on-a-chip).