Organic Integrated Optics: A possible new approach to telecommunications systems

Speaker: Prof. William Gillin (Queen Mary, University of London)

Time and Date: 10:00-11:30, Oct. 23, 2013

Place: Room 221B, Physics Building, Handan Campus

Abstract

Optical telecommunications rely on a world-wide network of optical fibres carrying information at the speed of light. Despite the phenomenally low losses in modern optical fibres these signals need to be regenerated every 100km and the current technology for this is the erbium doped optical amplifier. These are expensive and bulky. If we could develop a gain medium that could operate at the same telecommunications wavelengths but was compatible with silicon then we can envision building a completely new approach to telecommunication systems were all the components are integrated onto silicon in the same fashion as an integrated circuit. We have recently developed an organic system that has all of the required properties and this talk will introduce the ideas behind optical telecommunications and explain how novel organic materials may be used to produce optical integrated circuits.

Biography

William Gillin works primarily on the electrical and optical properties of organic materials. He currently has two main areas of research. Organic optical amplifiers based on lanthanide containing molecules and organic spintronics.