This portfolio of work contributes to the remit of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to develop the underpinning expertise and tools for validating nascent and future optical quantum technologies based on the discrete and quantum properties of photons. This requirement over…
This thesis describes a number of studies on organic semiconductors focused around using them as gain media for lasers. The photophysical properties of organic semiconductors are studied using a wide range of experimental techniques, allowing the evaluation of new materials and …
The two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficient is measured in indium phosphide (InP) using femtosecond pulses to be 45cm/GW at 1.32μm. Nanosecond pulses are subsequently used to find the free-carrier refractive index cross-section, σ_r, and the free-carrier absorption coefficient, …
Semiconductor diode lasers are successful tools in atomic spectroscopy. They are routinely used in frequency conversion applications to develop devices that access regions of the spectrum not directly available. This thesis describes the practical application of novel violet dio…
The growing speed and bandwidth requirements of telecommunication systems demand all-optical on-chip solutions. Microphotonic devices can deliver low power nonlinear signal processing solutions. This thesis looks at the slow light photonic crystals in chalcogenide glasses to enh…
The research described in this thesis relates to the design, fabrication and testing of novel semiconductor-based light sources that have been designed for the generation of infra-red light. The thesis is formatted to account for two distinct components of my work, where the fir…
A theoretical study of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonic wires was conducted. These nanoscale optical waveguides can have transverse dimensions substantially smaller than the wavelength of the infrared light they carry. This extreme confinement provides very strong dispersion,…
This dissertation is about the fabrication of monodispersed (same size, shape, composition, structure, etc.) silver nanoparticles in gas media and their optical characterizations such as optical absorption, nonlinear optical response and plasmon assisted fluorescence. The first …