Product/Research Description

The Optoelectronics Research Group undertakes a range of short and long term research and development projects for customers from industrial, governmental and charitable bodies. The research is almost exclusively applied in nature and often involves developing systems for use in real environments, rather than the laboratory. The group has for instance, extensive experience of designing and building systems for deployment in the North Sea. By far the largest area of activity is development of laser/optical based sensors. Sensors are currently being developed for physical, biomedical and chemical applications. The group is involved in a number of collaborative projects both nationally and internationally (20 different organisations from 11 different countries) involving industrial and academic partners.

Current projects include:

• Development of optical fibre array sensors for marine and environmental applications
• Photolysis of Vitamin E
• Development of improved detection and labelling strategies for CE based DNA sequencing and assay
• Development of non-separation immunoassays
• Development of nonlinear optical techniques for studying biomolecules
• The application of tuneable laser technology to the characterisation of plankton and hydrocarbons
• Laser stone cleaning
• Development of qualitative methods for monitoring algae on walls
• Development of improved flow meters for plankton saniplers
• Development of less intrusive methods for food texture analysis
• Studies of membrane dynamics

Skills & Facilities
The group possesses a range of state-of-the-art optoelectronics equipment e.g. Eximer, doubled ND:YAG, Nitrogen, OPO and Argon-ion lasers as well as a selection of smaller diode and HeNe lasers along with associated signal processing and analysis equipment, housed in dedicated laboratories. There is also access to a wide range of analytical and test/measurement equipment within the School of Applied Sciences including: U.V, .Visible, IR and FTIR spectrometers, NMR, electron microscope, fluorimeter, ultrasonic and eddy current non-destructive testing equipment etc. Personnel within the group have extensive experience in spectroscopy, sensor (including optical fibre) and instrumentation development, field based environmental measurements /monitoring, laser applications and nonlinear optics.