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High-power lasers developed at the University of Glasgow now lie at the heart of state-of-the-art technologies in the commercial printing, medical and defence markets. University of Glasgow spin-out company Intense has introduced more than 10 new diode laser products with superior brightness, longer lifetimes and increased reliability to these markets since 2008. [text removed for publication.] In 2011 Intense was bought by ORIX USA Corporate Finance Group for an undisclosed sum.
Today's global telecom systems are powered by technology developed at the University of Glasgow. This technology has been utilised, endorsed and developed by a series of internationally successful companies, facilitating multimillion pound investment from across Europe and the USA for the companies.
Gemfire Europe acquired the University of Glasgow IP and technology and between 2008 and 2012 launched a range of `green' products with reduced power consumption. The company's revenues reached $12m annually and in 2013, Gemfire was one of the world's top five planar lightwave circuit companies. Gemfire was bought by Kaiam, one of the world's market-leading optical networking companies in April 2013, stimulating further innovation and investment in the production of high-speed components for the global data networking market.
Cascade Technologies is a rapidly expanding technology company that contributes significantly to the UK economy. The company, a spin out from the Physics Department, manufactures gas sensors based on Strathclyde research that are used for environmental monitoring, security monitoring and process monitoring. From 2008 to 2013 the company has expanded to employ 50 people and sales have increased from £0.9 million to £6.4 million. From 2008 the company's products are used on a number of commercial shipping fleets to monitor emissions, and from 2010 until 2011 have been used to increase traveller safety at Glasgow airport
This is an example of early economic impact where research on various aspects of laser engineering has resulted in the development of inexpensive, compact, efficient and user-friendly laser sources. An example is the incorporation of quantum dot structures into semiconductor laser architectures, with these replacing much larger and more expensive systems, with a range of applications in areas such as microscopy, biomedical diagnosis and therapy. This work has led to the generation of key know-how and patents that have been subsequently licensed as well as resulting in a variety of laser-related products being brought to market. Additionally, it has resulted in extra staff being employed at one of our partner companies.
Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) locking, developed into a practical technique by researchers at the University of Glasgow, is the ubiquitous method for the precise frequency control of stable laser systems. This control is central to laser products from companies such as Toptica and Newport, and has an estimated global annual market in excess of £5M. The PDH stabilisation technique is essential for the operation of the time standards maintained in all of the world's Governmental Metrological Standards Laboratories (e.g. NPL, NIST, BIPM) and finds applications in inspection tools in the semiconductor industry and deep UV lasers for UV-Raman spectroscopy.
Commercialisation of high optical quality diamond by Element Six Ltd (2010 on) and of diamond- enabled lasers by M Squared Lasers Ltd (2012 on) has been made possible by underpinning research on laser engineering and optical characterisation at the University of Strathclyde. [text removed for publication] Markets for this material include thermal management of lasers to enable higher powers and high-performance laser output windows. [text removed for publication]
The performance of absolute distance measuring systems has been improved in terms of accuracy, traceability, reliability and cost through the introduction of new methodology arising from research at the University of Oxford. This has brought commercial benefit to a German company making measurement systems, through the creation of a new product line. New capabilities for measurement have been delivered to a first customer in Germany. The research has also resulted in the establishment of new activity at the National Physical Laboratory, and influenced UK and European technology roadmaps for future manufacturing.
Impact: Economic gains / altered business practices.
Research on ultrafast lasers has led to the development of new products and services and has been pivotal in the development of a whole field of new technology.
Significance: The research underpins the product development of a range of world leading companies including Femtolasers, Newport Spectra-Physics and Menlo Systems.
Reach: The companies that use the technology represent all of the leading players in the solid-state femtosecond laser field, a marketplace worth more than $250M annually.
Beneficiaries: The impact presents economic gains to the companies involved and underlies many applications in e.g. biology and medicine, providing significant benefits to the public at large.
Attribution: The research was performed by Professor Sibbett's group.
The innovative application of laser micromachining research has been effected through Bangor's spin-out company Laser Micromachining Ltd , LML (established in 2005). The versatile approach adopted by LML has enabled it, since 2008, to undertake of order 1000 commercial contracts for more than 280 industrial customers and 60 academic institutions. That work has contributed directly to product development and related economic growth in sectors including medical devices, biotechnology, energy, photonics, optoelectronics, aerospace, automotive and microelectronics. With an annual turn-over of circa £0.5M LML has created and sustained 5 full-time jobs. LML also contributes to training in laser micro-machining techniques on a European basis.
The development by Cambridge University staff of compact semiconductor sources and detectors of Terahertz radiation has opened up this part of the electromagnetic spectrum to commercial use for the first time, enabling many applications. In medicine these applications include the analysis of drugs and the detection and imaging of cancer; in security applications the detection and imaging of explosives; and in the semiconductor industry the detection and imaging of buried defects in semiconductor wafers. High power Terahertz lasers are used in gas sensors, for imaging and as local oscillators. This technology has been exploited by a spin-off company TeraView which has 25 employees, has raised £16M in funding, £3.5M since 2008, and has sold 70 imaging systems, half since 2008 at an average cost of $300K each.