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Ultrafast Photonics Collaboration research
The Ultrafast Photonics Collaboration (UPC) is an Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It brings together scientists, engineers and technologists from leading UK universities and major international companies in a challenging project focused on the delivery of next-generation components and networks needed to provide datacomms up to rates of 100Tbit/s.
The Requirement.
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Today's systems based on fibre optic networks have proved to be remarkably successful, but the continued growth in data traffic is producing an ever increasing strain on the network. Many of the bottlenecks arise from the need to use electronics to govern the flow of optical pulses around these systems. These electronic components are now beginning to reach their performance limits and so a revolutionary approach needs to be found for future high-capacity data communications networks. |
The UPC's goal is the identification and development of the technologies needed to enable datacomms at 100Tbit/s. To put this in perspective, the maximum speed of currently installed systems is around 100Gbit/s - thus an increase of 4 orders of magnitude is required. Such a network would allow video-on-demand services for internet users or provide enough capacity for libraries to be placed on-line. As our economy and lifestyles become progressively more globalised, the need for data transport grows insatiably and the time has come to transfer devices and techniques developed in university research labs into practical implementations.
The Technology
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To address the requirement for large communication bandwidths, the UPC is geared towards the introduction of femtosecond optical technology into networks (1fs=10-15s.) Not only can femtosecond pulses be controlled in time, rather like the Morse code of the electric telegraph, but the wide variety of colours making up such pulses offers the opportunity to encode vast amounts of information. |
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The UPC Approach
The UPC has been set up as a broadly-based collaboration of equal partners working towards a common goal through a managed research programme. The partners include six UK Universities (Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Imperial College and St Andrews) and five major companies (Agilent Technologies, Alcatel Optronics, Bookham, Nortel Networks and Sharp). The programme is managed through three scientific themes; Generation and Regeneration, New Devices from New Science and Subsystems and Networks, each taking a slice through the entire optical network from the creation of optical pulses through to the management of the network.
| Generation and Regeneration covers the creation of the pulses and the development of suitable amplifiers. To undertake this exacting task, new material systems will be required. The UPC is leading a programme in the development of quantum-dot based devices for this application and is also investigating the use of organic semiconductors that have the possibility of producing components which are both highly functional and cheap! |
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New Devices from New Science combines the very best science available in university labs with the focus needed to deliver practical devices in realistic timescales. One area of note in this theme is a thorough investigation of photonic band gap (PBG) systems. These structures may provide the route for photonic integration finally realising the goal of high-density optoelectronic devices on a chip. Spintronics allows us to access the microscopic properties of electrons within semiconductor devices leading to very efficient devices with enhanced functionality. |
| Femtosecond Networks covers both the integration of the technologies developed in the other themes into real-world implementations and the development of revolutionary ideas for existing networks. For example, it may be that in the future information will no longer be encoded into the familiar 1 and 0 of digital data, but many levels (e.g. 0,1,2,3) could be used. The work conducted within this theme drives the UPC and provides a highly relevant focus for the research being conducted within the other programme themes. |
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The UPC programme has been running since July 2000 and significant advances have already been made. We believe that such large-scale collaborative work does make an impact greater than the sum of its parts and the UPC now stands as a leading research organisation.
The UPC mid-term review was held recently. Selected presentations on our technology are available:
Analysis of Losses in 2D-Photonic Crystals Using the 3D FDT Method
Modelling Ultrafast Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers
Pulse Compression in Photonic Crystal Waveguides
Long Wavelength Emission from InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots
Organic Semiconductors: Towards Processible Broadband Optical Amplifiers
A list of selected UPC publications is available here!
Please contact us if you have any questions or specific inputs relating to the work of the UPC.
Links to individual university research groups working on the various areas of the UPC programme are given below:
| Photonic Communications Systems | University of Cambridge | Systems design and implementation, femtosecond sources based on laser diodes, photonic structures in active devices |
| Optical and Semiconductor Devices | Imperial College | Multilevel coding schemes for high capacity data systems |
| Ultrashort Pulse Laser Sources | St Andrews University | Practical femtosecond sources, high repetition rate femtosecond sources |
| Polymer Optotelectronics | St Andrews University | Broadband organic amplifiers, polymer lasers, photonic microsctructures in organic materials. |
| Centre for Electronic Materials and Devices | Imperial College | Quantum dot growth, modulator research, device fabrication, nitride growth |
| Experimental Solid State Physics | Imperial College | Organic semiconductors, microstructures in organic materials. |
| Centre for Communications Research Optical Communications Systems | Bristol University | Quantum dot modeling, nitride devices, FDTD modeling of photonic bandgap structures |
| Photonic Crystal Research Group | St Andrews University | Design and fabrication of photonic crystals with dispersive properties. Pulse compression, superprisms |
| Photonic Microstructures | Glasgow University | Components based on photonic microstructures |
| Semiconductor Physics Group | St Andrews University | Characterisation of semiconductor processes on fs-timescales, phase measurement techniques, spintronics |
| Semiconductor Theory Group | Heriot-Watt University | Theoretical characterisation of semiconductor optical amplifiers based on quantum wells and quantum dots. |
Del Mar Ventures femtosecond product portfolio includes Ti:Sapphire and Cr:Forsterite oscillators and amplifiers, Femtosecond Absorption Pump – Probe Systems and Femtosecond Fluorescence Measurement Systems, as well as a variety of autocorrelators for pulse measurements, pulse pickers for pulse selection, and Faraday Isolators to protect femtosecond laser oscillators from optical feedback.
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