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 Institute of Photonics Deputy Director Dr 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 led by Prof. Martin Dawson. 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, Dr 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 Dr 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.

Expertise

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Prize And Awards

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

More prizes and awards

Publications

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Publications

Time-resolved Raman spectrometer with high fluorescence rejection based on a CMOS SPAD line sensor and a 573 nm pulsed laser: Talala Tuomo, Kaikkonen Ville A, Keränen Pekka, Nikkinen Jari, Härkönen Antti, Savitski Vasili G, Reilly Sean, Dziechciarczyk Łukasz, Kemp Alan J, Guina Mircea, Mäkynen Anssi J, Nissinen Ilkka; IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement Vol 70 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2021.3054679
Stability of Q-switched 2 μm lasers: Brooks James, Bonner Gerald M, Kemp Alan J, Stothard David J M; OSA Continuum Vol 3, pp. 568-579 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1364/OSAC.389477
9 W average power, 150 kHz repetition rate diamond Raman laser at 1519 nm, pumped by a Yb fibre amplifier: Dziechciarczyk Łukasz, Huang Zhimeng, Demetriou Giorgos, Cheng Dan, Pidishety Shankar, Feng Yujun, Feng Yutong, Wang Guozheng, Lin Huaiqin, Zhu Sheng, Lin Di, Hawkins Thomas W, Dong Liang, Kemp Alan, Nilsson Johan, Savitski Vasili; 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Europe – European Quantum Electronics Conference (2019)
Titanium sapphire : A decade of diode-laser pumping: Coyle Jamie CE, Hopkins John-Mark, Lagatsky Alexander A, Kemp Alan J; 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1109/CLEOE-EQEC.2019.8872912
100 kW peak power external cavity diamond Raman laser at 2.52 μm: Demetriou Giorgos, Kemp Alan J, Savitski Vasili; Optics Express Vol 27, pp. 10296-10303 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.010296
Energy scaling, second Stokes oscillation and Raman gain-guiding in monolithic diamond Raman lasers: Savitski Vasili G, Demetriou Giorgos, Reilly Sean, Liu Hangyu, Gu Erdan, Dawson Martin D, Kemp Alan; IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics Vol 54 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.2018.2875561