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Fluorescence lifetime research since 1993 in Strathclyde's Photophysics Group led by Prof. David Birch contributed to the success of the University spin-out company IBH (Imhof, Birch, Hallam), and its successful merger with the £1Bn multinational company Horiba. The Strathclyde research has helped Horiba to be, since 2008, the market-leading supplier of fluorescence spectrometers, which comprise steady-state, lifetime and hybrid instruments. The commercial success of the company has led to economic benefits and employment. Through production of an improved spectrometry product range, the Strathclyde research has also facilitated multidisciplinary molecular and materials research globally, across Industry, Government and University sectors, bringing benefits to diverse disciplines such as life sciences, healthcare, chemistry, and nanotechnology.
Since 1994, the university has pioneered the development of spatial light scattering for the rapid detection and classification of various types of airborne particle. This `particle thumbprint' technology, based on an analysis of the detailed 2-dimensional pattern of light scattered by each particle, has since found worldwide application.
Over the 2008-13 period, the technology was exploited by commercial companies and research organisations from the USA, mainland Europe, the UK and Japan in areas including military bioaerosol detection; atmospheric cloud microphysics and climate research; particle/powder process control; stack emissions monitoring; environmental pollution assessment; and, most recently, the real-time detection of hazardous airborne asbestos fibres.
Imperial researchers in Prof Paul French's photonics group demonstrated one of the first practical FLIM instruments in 1997 using a prototype gated optical intensifier (GOI) developed by Kentech Instruments Ltd and a home-built solid-state ultrafast laser. They subsequently pioneered the use of ultrafast supercontinuum sources (USS) for FLIM. Today wide-field time-gated FLIM is a commercial success and is being widely applied for biomedicine, including for imaging of diseased tissue [e.g. 5] and for FRET (Fluorescence resonance energy transfer) microscopy to assay protein interactions [e.g. 3, 4]. This research thus helped translate FLIM to a wider community, highlighting the potential for tissue imaging, cell biology and drug discovery. It stimulated about £5M of GOI sales for Kentech [section 5, source A], with whom they developed time-gated FLIM technology and applications, and millions of pounds worth of sales of supercontinuum sources for Fianium Ltd [B].
The sale of Genapta Ltd. to a North American Instrument manufacturer was successfully completed in December 2008, with the release of the holdback payments and associated validation of its technology, as well as the transfer of know-how to the purchaser. The funds from the sale also benefitted the shareholders, including Cambridge Enterprise Ltd which was able to reinvest funds in new University spin-outs. Genapta was co-founded by David Richards, with product development between 2001 and 2008 of a fluorescence assay system for biochemical screening informed by his expertise in fluorescence detection, resulting from his research during this period.
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.
New commercial gas sensing technology developed from research at the University of Strathclyde brings extensive technical, operational, safety and cost benefits to applications such as mine safety and leak detection in methane production, storage, piping and transport systems. World-wide commercial sales (in Japan, China and the USA) began in late 2010 through a spin out company, OptoSci Ltd. Sales are growing and have amounted to a total of £250k since launch plus a customisation contract for £193k, leading to jobs sustainability and growth. In addition to economic impacts, the technology also brings health and safety benefits in the gas distribution and mining industries through human safety assurance in the event of gas leaks / build up.
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.
The commercialisation of Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) and the associated novel fabrication processes developed at the University of Glasgow has provided Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CSTG) with a new foundry product supplying quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing, safety and security, and military applications. This resulted in 40% turnover growth from 2010-2012 and the company is now recognised as a global leader in QCLs and their fabrication. Based on University of Glasgow research, the company has created a manufacturing toolbox for the production of a wide variety of QCL chip designs. CSTG has also achieved a world first, manufacturing QCLs for systems that detect explosives at a safe distance and can counter heat-seeking missile attacks on aircraft.
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.
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.