Professor Alan Kemp
Institute of Photonics
Personal statement
Alan joined the Institute of Photonics in August 2002 as part of Dr David Burns’ solid-state laser engineering team. In 2005, he was awarded a 3-year personal research fellowship by the Royal Society of Edinburgh to develop his research on disk lasers. He was appointed as an Associate Team Leader at the Institute in 2005 and as a Research Team Leader in 2009. In 2011, he was awarded a European Research Council Starter Grant to work on Diamond Lasers, and in 2014 he was awarded a five-year Fraunhofer UK / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Laser Engineering. His research centres on the science and engineering of solid-state lasers: thermal management, simplified pumping arrangements, and compact devices - particularly exploiting synthetic diamond and diode-pumping of Ti:sapphire. He assists Prof Jennifer Hastie with leading the Institute’s Advanced Lasers group. The Compact Laser Engineering Team, of which Alan is part, works very closely with Jennifer’s High Brightness Semiconductor Disk Lasers team. In turn, the lasers group as a whole continually collaborates with other Institute staff, in particular the Photonics Materials and Devices group. Beyond the university, the lasers group regularly collaborates with the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics, on joint projects, joint studentships and sub-contracts.
Research highlights include the first demonstration of a CW diamond Raman laser, of a monolithic diamond Raman laser, and of direct pumping of a Ti:sapphire laser. This has been backed up by detailed work on the exploitation of novel synthetic diamond both for thermal management in lasers and the direct use of diamond as a laser gain material in Raman lasers.
Alan has been principal investigator on three EPSRC-funded research grants: on diamond Raman lasers (EP/G00014X/1), on directly diode-laser pumped Ti:sapphire lasers (EP/E036724/1, EP/T014288/1), and on fibre-laser pumped diamond Raman lasers (EP/P00041X/1). These projects have involved collaboration with Coherent Scotland, Arctos, GTAT, U. of Southampton, Thales Optronics, Element Six, SPI Lasers, and Fraunhofer CAP. Alan is also a co-investigator and management board member for the Warwick-led EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Science and Technology, and was a CoI on phase one of the National Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology, assisting the Strathclyde lead, Prof Jennifer Hastie.
Beyond the research councils, Alan has led both research and consultancy work funded by a number of UK and international companies. In 2009, Alan and his colleagues Walter Lubeigt and David Burns were awarded the Thales / Scottish Enterprise Scottish Technology Prize for laser engineering. Alan collaborated with M-Squared Lasers Ltd and the Fraunhofer Center for Applied Photonics on Innovate UK funded projects on diode-pumped Ti:sapphire lasers for biological imaging and lasers for quantum technologies, the later led for Strathclyde by Prof Jennifer Hastie. Alan has been the academic supervisor for a number of doctoral students working on industrial projects - based at the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics and at Thales Optronics Ltd. He has collaborated closely with Element Six Ltd on the laser applications of diamond for over a decade.
Alan obtained his PhD from the University of St. Andrews in 1999 for work in Dr Bruce Sinclair's group on spatial and spectral selectivity mechanisms in microchip and miniature lasers. He was then a post-doc for three years in Prof. Wilson Sibbett's group, also in St. Andrews, working on the development of compact femtosecond lasers.
Prize And Awards
- Royal Academy of Engineering / Fraunhofer UK Research Chair
- Recipient
- 1/2/2014
- European Research Council Starting Independent Investigator Grant
- Recipient
- 1/10/2011
- Elected Senior Member of OSA 2010
- Recipient
- 2010
- Scottish Enterprise/Thales Scottish Technology Prize 2008
- Recipient
- 2008
- RSE Personal Research Fellowship 2005-2008.
- Recipient
- 2005
Publications
- Continuous-wave diamond Raman laser at 1.2μm with 85W output power in a single pump pass configuration
- Summers Peter A, Barber Matthew J, Watkins Benedict, Terry Daniel J, Kemp Alan J, Savitski Vasili G
- Proceedings of SPIE Proceedings of SPIE Vol 14022 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3094210
- Multi-watt diode-pumped Ti:sapphire laser
- Simpson Niall, Lee Martin, Kemp Alan J
- Optics Continuum Vol 4, pp. 704-712 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTCON.555027
- A low-cost approach to diode-pumped Ti:sapphire lasers with Watt-level output
- Simpson Niall, Lee Martin, Kemp Alan J
- IEEE Photonics Journal Vol 16 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1109/jphot.2024.3463751
- Wavelength and polarisation dependence of pump-induced loss in Ti:sapphire
- Simpson Niall, Lee Martin, Kemp Alan J
- Optical Materials Express Vol 14, pp. 1370-1389 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.511506
- A low-cost approach to diode-pumped Ti:Sapphire resonators with Watt-level output
- Simpson Niall, Lee Martin, Kemp Alan
- (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1364/opticaopen.24764043.v3
- Wavelength and polarisation dependence of pump-induced loss in Ti:sapphire
- Simpson Niall, Lee Martin, Kemp Alan
- (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1364/opticaopen.24619119.v1
Professional Activities
- Advanced lasers theme at the Institute of Photonics
- Invited speaker
- 16/11/2018
- Spectroscope Workshop
- Participant
- 7/6/2017
- De Beers Diamond Conference
- Participant
- 11/7/2016
- External PhD Examiner - Imperial
- External Examiner
- 15/3/2016
- Research Seminar presented at Element Six Ltd
- Speaker
- 3/2016
- SU2P Workshop on Diamond for Quantum Technology and Sensors
- Organiser
- 1/2/2016
Projects
- Portable Ti:sapphire lasers: discovering new application spaces Copy
- Lengden, Michael (Principal Investigator) Kemp, Alan (Co-investigator) Simpson, Niall (Co-investigator)
- 28-Jan-2026 - 30-Jan-2026
- Persistent Autonomous LiDAR Sensor (PALS) for low-cost subsurface observation of climate-critical biogeochemical parameters | Neimann, Brad Richard
- McKee, David (Principal Investigator) Kemp, Alan (Co-investigator) Neimann, Brad Richard (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2029
- UDLA 2527 University of Strathclyde | Neimann, Brad Richard
- McKee, David (Principal Investigator) Kemp, Alan (Co-investigator) Neimann, Brad Richard (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2029
- Robust diode pumped titanium sapphire lasers: accelerating the delivery of photonics to emerging quantum markets (EPSRC Photonics and Quantum Accelerator)
- Kemp, Alan (Principal Investigator) Moriya, Paulo (Co-investigator) Lee, Martin (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- Robust diode pumped titanium sapphire lasers: accelerating the delivery of photonics to emerging quantum markets
- Kemp, Alan (Principal Investigator) Moriya, Paulo (Co-investigator) Lee, Martin (Research Co-investigator)
- Project funded by EPSRC Photonics and Quantum Accelerator in collaboration with Caledonian Photonics Ltd. Secondment of university staff to transfer technology around Ti:Sapphire lasers.
- 01-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2025
- DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Coyne, Lewis
- Kemp, Alan (Principal Investigator) Hastie, Jennifer (Co-investigator) Coyne, Lewis (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2028