ORC delegation welcomed at Shanghai Institute

A delegation of seven researchers from the University of Southampton's ORC visited to the Shanghai Institute of Optics and fine Mechanics (SIOM).

Professor Weibiao Chen, Deputy Director of SIOM, hosted the visit at the 15th Qinghe Forum in Shanghai on 20th November 2014, at which Professor Johan Nilsson was invited to give the keynote talk,'High-power lasers at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton'.

Professor Nilsson provided an overview of the Optoelectronics Research Centre followed by a presentation of recent results on the physics and performance of different fibre lasers in different regimes of operation. As an example of new possible directions for fibre lasers, he presented the International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN), an EU-funded project which aims to harness the efficiency, controllability, and high average power capability of fibre lasers to produce high energy, high repetition rate pulse sources.

Professor Nilsson commented that the lower rate of headline results of rapidly growing output power from high-power fiber lasers over the past decade is a challenge. He said:

"The high cost and engineering requirements at the multi-kW level contribute to this, but there are also increasing needs to address limits imposed by nonlinearities, thermal effects, and beam degradation. This often calls for a better understanding of the fundamentals."

The talks were followed by a lively academic discussion chaired by Professor Nilsson.