The aim of this follow-up project is to develop a range of packaged carbon nanotube based mode-lockers and compact ultrafast fibre lasers utilizing these mode-lockers, with the aim to bring to market exploitation the fundamental results of the previous EPSRC grant. To do so we will first optimize polymer-nanotube composites aiming at long-term and high-fluence stability. We will then produce engineered devices with performance suitable for demonstration to target manufacturing companies. Nanotube-based photonic devices are expected to find a wide range of applications not only in optical communications but also in bio-medical instruments, chemical analysis, time resolved spectroscopy, electro-optical sampling, microscopy and surgery. Given the wide range of derivative technologies, to guide our development efforts we will carry out market surveys to identify key applications and target specifications. This will guide the technology marketing at the end of the project.

Liquid crystal devices have come of age, having fulfilled their promise of several decades ago by increasingly dominating the market for displays. The industry has become global and the manufacturing is mostly in the Far East. This is not the end, but the beginning and UK scientists and engineers that have played a distinguished role in these developments must work with the global industry and develop strategies that enable us to remain engaged.We note that innovation continues rapidly and that the massive investment in this technology has produced a remarkable diversity of materials and electro-optic phenomena that are now starting to be applied in photonic devices in communications and the biosciences.The title Liquid Crystal Photonics is used to suggest that opto-electronics and displays should be embraced under one heading, reliant as they are on closely related optical functionality in similar materials. The strategic importance of phase-only real time holography by liquid crystal components is emerging into the marketplace in both optical communications and in displays. In displays the changes are probably going to be disruptive, producing highly miniature micro projectors with flexible control of all image attributes. Initially these are destined for 'micro projectors' for mobile phones etc., but will ultimately move to rear projection high definition TV. In optical communications the integration of several functions into software controlled modules matches closely the requirements of the now crucial metropolitan area network. Flexible, compact and low cost optical routers and add-drop-multiplexers for wavelength division (WDM) multiplexed systems may become a common sight in urban areas. The deep-sub-micron silicon CMOS technology that is used for liquid crystal over silicon (LCOS) backplanes is now mass producing complex low-cost integrated circuits with a minimum feature size below 100nm. We can therefore now electrically address liquid crystals using nano structure electrodes to open up applications requiring sub-wavelength photonic crystal structures (e.g. exhibiting electrically switchable surface alignment of liquid crystals, form birefringence and optical band gaps). As in the case of 'conventional' phase-only holography, the unique advantages resulting from the use of silicon CMOS backplanes are programmability and software control. It may be possible to enhance the already remarkable electro-optic properties of liquid crystals, enabling such properties as negative refractive index, programmable scattering and ultra-high-speed switching to be obtained.In general, liquid crystals respond dramatically to nano structures in the range from tens to hundreds of nanometres with or without electrical fields, e.g. liquid crystal director fields are aligned in contact with surface topography in this range. The interactions that occur between free particles embedded in nematic liquid crystals (due to both elastic interactions and Casimir interactions) are important issues in polymer based nano-composite materials and director deformations on this scale are important in structured dielectrics, semiconductors and conductors in the advance of polymer electronics. These are substantial areas of scientific and technological interest where the infra structure of liquid science and technology (that has been driven by the display industry) will be a major factor in future developments.

A transformation is currently underway in a large range of computer and sensing technologies, displays and communication systems with the introduction of new low cost, flexible molecular and macromolecular materials. These materials, which encompass polymers, advanced liquid crystals, and nanostructures, including carbon and silicon nanowires, are set to have a disruptive impact on current technologies not only because of their cost/performance advantages, but also because they can be manufactured in more flexible ways, provide more functionality and be engineered for a wider range of applications. The new materials have a strong research base in the UK, are suitable for a wide range of commercial concerns, both large and small, and hence provide an important opportunity for UK plc. At Cambridge there has been considerable research and development into these materials in recent years, with a range of world leading results having been achieved, which have in turn been exploited, in more than 15 spin-outs to date. The market penetration of soft materials into microelectronics and photonics however has only just begun, and with a market estimate measured in $10's of billion per annum, it is certain that the UK must capitalise on its strength in the basic science. There is an urgent need for the development of advanced manufacturing technologies using new macromolecular material systems and valid exploitation models. What the UK lacks is a dedicated centre of excellence that can act as a repository of expertise, developing both clear and differentiated core competencies, together with providing a knowledge development and transfer role. Success here will critically depend upon early traction between those in research and those in commercial exploitation. It will also rely on funding of products right through to pilot production for the first time, the lack of which has been a barrier to commercialisation and hence has limited exploitation in this field in the past. This proposal therefore seeks to create a new molecular and macromolecular materials (MMM) IKC. This will bring together the main research activities in the field at Cambridge, namely in the Electrical Engineering Division (in particular within the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Photonics, CAPE) and in the Cavendish. Together this research spans the MMM field and is recognised as having a world-leading position. A key to this proposed IKC however is that it will also allow much greater interaction and collaboration with those in business than has previously been possible for EPSRC funded research activities. Hence the IKC, if awarded, would allow the creation of tightly focussed commercialisation activities jointly with the Judge Business School, the Institute of Manufacturing (including the EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre) and the Centre for Business Research. These will allow the creation of a range of innovative knowledge transfer activities spanning business research, training and specific product exploitation. Finally, the Centre will also allow the secondment of researchers from industry and other universities to the IKC, specifically for knowledge transfer (as opposed to research), and in its later stages make use of the provision of pilot manufacturing lines for prototyping. Reciprocal arrangements will also ensure that academics learn the key features of and improve their effectiveness in exploitation themselves.