AiPT Research Seminars

The AiPT research seminars bring together international experts and AiPT staff, fostering an environment of knowledge sharing and discovery across a range of diverse topics. The AiPT research seminars continue to promote scientific dialogue and engagement among the global research community, ensuring that AiPT remains at the forefront of innovation and discovery in the fields of photonics and telecommunications.

AIPT Upcoming Seminars in 2026

Speaker: Professor Anna C. Peacock
Affiliation: University of Southampton
Title: Recent advances in silicon core optical fibres: from fabrication to applications
Time: 29 April, Wednesday from 11:00am to 12:00pm
Venue: NW708, MS Teams

Abstract: Silicon photonics is currently one of the largest growing areas of research, attracting considerable interest amongst both academic and industrial communities. The ability to incorporate the semiconductor functionality into optical fibre geometries provides an important step towards the seamless integration of these two technologies, as well as opening up new application areas for fibre systems. This seminar will review recent progress in the emerging field of silicon core optical fibres regarding their design, fabrication, and materials optimization. Particular focus will be placed on our efforts to showcase demonstrations that benefit from the unique fibre geometry and offer possibilities for integration with conventional fibre components.

Speaker: Sir David N Payne
Affiliation: Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton
Title:“Nothing” is Better than Silica
Time: 06 May, Wednesday from 11:00am to 12:00pm
Venue: NW708, MS Teams

Abstract:Fuelled by the needs of AI, the capacity demands of the ever-growing internet and its voracious appetite for power can only be met by more optics in data centres, transmission systems, and storage.”
Conventional optical fibres guide light through transparent solid glass cores. Since their invention in in the 1960s, they have become the backbone of global communications with around 500 million km installed every year. 45 years later, we have a new low-loss hollow core fibre (HCF). We are now able to the use air as the transmission medium with guidance provided by a carefully structured metamaterial in the fibre cladding. This provides all the advantages of solid fibres, but without the limitations associated with the core glass. We can have 30% lower latency, >1000 times lower nonlinearity and the potential for propagation loss of only 0.03 dB/km, low enough for repeaterless transoceanic distances. When commercially cabled (packaged) and produced in large volumes, this will enable a significant increase in the transmitted data transmission capacity and reduction in the cost-per-bit, which will revolutionise global optical communications once again.
As you might expect from a “vacuum-core” fibre, its properties are extremely stable, suiting it to many applications such as sensors (gyros in particular), timing distribution and financial trading. Moreover, because it shares attributes with metamaterials, we have the additional geometric freedom to build in properties not found in nature, such as custom designed dispersion and loss windows well outside those of the constituent materials.
With the huge increase in data traffic comes a headache in how to store the information for the requisite period of time that is often mandated by banks and government – up to several hundred years. Once again, silica comes to the rescue and a new storage medium based on silica disks appears a leading contender to replace today’s tape units. The technique, known as 5D storage because of the way each bit can be written and read, provides both high storage density and an extraordinary lifetime estimated at thousands of years.
The talk will outline some of the remarkable properties of these silica devices, together with the design space available.

Speaker: Prof Dr Tomáš Čižmár
Affiliation: Wave Optics at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena & and Head of the Fibre Research and Technology department of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena
Title:Seeing anywhere in the brain through 100mm thin glass fibre
Time: 27 May, Wednesday from 11:00am to 12:00pm
Venue: NW708, MS Teams

Abstract: Light-based in-vivo brain imaging relies on the transportation of light through highly scattering tissues over long distances. As scattering gradually reduces imaging contrast and resolution, it becomes challenging to visualize structures at greater depths, even when using multiphoton techniques. To overcome this limitation, minimally invasive endo-microscopy techniques have been developed that typically use graded-index rod lenses. However, a recently proposed alternative involves the exploitation of holographic control of light transport through multimode optical fibres [1], which promises superior imaging performance with less traumatic application [2]. Following the review of the fundamental and technological bases, the talk will introduce a 110 μm thin laser-scanning endo-microscope, which enables volumetric imaging of the entire depth of the mouse brain in vivo [3]. The system is equipped with multi-wavelength detection and three-dimensional random-access options, and it has a lateral resolution of less than 1 μm. Various modes of its application will be presented including the observations of fluorescently labelled neurons, their processes, and blood vessels. Finally, the use of the instrument for monitoring calcium signalling and measurements of blood flow in individual vessels at high speeds will be discussed.

Past Seminars

AiPT Seminar Series

The AiPT team organises a series of scientific seminars covering a wide range of topics, from experimental and theoretical challenges in photonics to industrial applications. If you are interested in collaborating with our team and would like to deliver a talk, please contact the AiPT Seminar Chair, Dr Auro Perego, at a.perego1@aston.ac.uk

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