Keynote Lectures

New Paths in Optical Sensing
José Luís Santos, Universidade do Porto, Portugal, Portugal

Infrared Glasses and Fibers for Optics and Photonics
Jean–Luc Adam, Université de Rennes 1 - CNRS, France, France

Emerging Fibre Technology for Optical Communications
David J. Richardson, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, United Kingdom

New Paths in Optical Sensing

José Luís Santos
Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Brief Bio
José Luís Santos earned his licenciatura in Physics from the University of Porto, Portugal, and PhD from the same University, benefiting from a collaboration with the University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom. He is currently full professor at the Physics and Astronomy Department of Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto, Portugal. He is also researcher of INESC TEC—Center of Applied Photonics. His main area of research is optical fiber sensing. He is author/co-author of 235 publications in international journals, of 7 book chapters and of 5 patents. With Professor Faramarz Farahi of University of North Carolina, USA, is editor of the book Handbook of Optical Sensors, CRC Press, 2014.

Abstract
Optical sensing has for long been associated with leading-edge performance and recent developments indicate this trend will continue. Progresses both at the level of well-established optical technologies and on the uncovered of fundamental optical science with direct impact on sensing and measurement justifies such statement. This talk looks for an overview of those progresses, starting with the identification of the general benefits that result from the combination of metamaterials and optical sensing, detailing the particular but important situation where special optical fibers are involved. Then the phenomenon of slow and fast light is presented within the perspective of optical sensing. The identification of the factors that determine the ultimate resolution in classical optical sensing systems is the next targeted subject, introducing the breakthrough associated with the consideration of squeezed states of light in the context of semi-classical optical sensing systems. The final part provides a glimpse of the fascinating new world of optical sensing in the realm of quantum mechanics, where truly qualitatively novel possibilities for measurement and sensing stand for discovery.

Infrared Glasses and Fibers for Optics and Photonics

Jean–Luc Adam
Université de Rennes 1 - CNRS, France

Brief Bio
Jean-Luc Adam received a PhD degree in chemistry from the University of Rennes, France, in 1983. After a one-year postdoctoral appointment at Oklahoma State University, he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France in 1985. Since then, his research has been devoted essentially to the chemistry of non-oxide glasses and to the spectroscopy of optically active ions, including research on optical fibers and waveguides. In 1989, he was a research associate at IBM-Almaden Research Center (San Jose, USA), conducting studies on glasses for optical memories. Presently, he is a senior scientist (Directeur de Recherche) at CNRS and Director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences at the University of Rennes. Until 2012, he was Joint-Head of the International Laboratory on Materials and Optics with the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has authored or co-authored 220 papers and book chapters, and has delivered more than 80 invited lectures at international conferences and universities.

Abstract
Vitreous materials based on chalcogen elements (S, Se, Te) show large transparency windows that extend from the visible up to 12-15 µm in the infrared, depending on their compositions. This is due to the lower phonon energies of chalcogenides, which are also responsible for enhanced luminescence of rare-earth ions embedded in such matrices. In addition, chalcogenide glasses contain large polarizable atoms and external lone electron pairs which induce exceptional non-linear properties as compared to oxide glasses. Typically, the non-linear properties of chalcogenide glasses can be 100 or 1000 times as high as the non-linearity of silica.
As far as shaping is concerned, specific chalcogenide glass compositions can be obtained in the form of optical lenses by molding; they can be also drawn in optical fibers or deposited as thin films and planar waveguides.
Applications are directly related to these unique optical properties and shaping abilities. For example, chalcogenide lenses are implemented in cameras for infrared imaging, and fibers and integrated waveguides are well adapted for optical sensing of (bio)-molecules. They also possess a high potential for applications as infrared sources, where rare-earth-doped oxide glasses cannot operate. The advent of chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers (PCF) with highly controlled periodical geometries and optical losses revolutionizes the conditions of propagation of IR light. The manufacturing of small-core PCFs (diameter smaller than 5 µm) is of great interest to enhance non-linear optical properties for telecom applications such as signal regeneration, generation of supercontinuum, and conversion to the mid infrared using Raman shifting.

Emerging Fibre Technology for Optical Communications

David J. Richardson
University of Southampton, United Kingdom
http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/people.html?person=djr1

Brief Bio
David Richardson obtained his B.Sc. and PhD in fundamental physics from Sussex University U.K. in 1985 and 1989 respectively. He joined the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University in 1989 and was awarded a Royal Society University Fellowship in 1991 in recognition of his pioneering work on short pulsed fibre lasers. Professor Richardson has been Deputy Director of the ORC with responsibility for optical fibre and laser related research since 2000. He has published more than 1000 research papers and produced more than 30 patents during his time at Southampton. He was one of the co-founders of SPI Lasers Ltd an ORC spin-off venture acquired by the Trumpf Group in 2008, which now employs >300 people within the UK. Professor Richardson is a Fellow of the IEEE, OSA and IET and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2009. He received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2013 for his optical communications research.

Abstract
Researchers are within a factor of 2 or so from realizing the maximum practical transmission capacity of conventional single mode fibre transmission technology in the laboratory and it is therefore necessary to consider new technological approaches offering the potential for more cost effective scaling of network capacity than simply installing more and more conventional single mode fibre systems in parallel. In this talk I shall review emerging fibre technologies offering significant potential for both enhanced per-fibre capacity and reduced costs per transmitted bit – the primary enabler being the application of space division multiplexing.