Associate Professor David Coutts
 Cerium Lasers: The Ti:Sapphire of the Ultraviolet
Cerium lasers are efficient all-solid-state tunable ultraviolet lasers. With an (energy) spectral bandwidth similar to Ti:sapphire but lasing directly in the ultraviolet, these lasers are emerging as the Ti:sapphire of the UV.
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David Coutts (Ph.D Macquarie University 1992) is head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University and member of the MQ Photonics Research Centre. Previously he was a Macquarie University Research Fellow (1992 to 1994), then a Postdoctoral Research Associate (1995-1999), and an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow (1999-2003) at Oxford University. His research interests include laser development, nonlinear frequency conversion and applications, particularly developing and using high repetition rate UV-visible-IR lasers. Laser systems developed include metal vapour lasers (including frequency doubled systems), tunable cerium solid-state lasers, Ti:sapphire lasers, liquid and solid-dye lasers; applications include laser micromachining, laser based high speed imaging and biophotonics.
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Associate Professor Judith Dawes
 What can we do with a Diode Laser? I. Pump Self-Frequency-Doubling Lasers. II.Laser-Cured Protein Solder for Microsurgery
I. Diode-pumped self-frequency-doubling lasers based on yttrium aluminium borate crystals are versatile and efficient lasers, transforming IR diode light into tunable visible laser radiation. II. Laser-cured protein solders enable microsurgical repair of severed arteries and nerves.
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Judith Dawes has been working with lasers in the infrared and visible for more than 25 years. She received her Bachelor of Science (Honours) and PhD from the University of Sydney in Physical Chemistry. During her PhD she was awarded a Rotary International Fellowship at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, working on amplified picosecond pulsed lasers. She went on to postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, Canada, in the Ontario Laser and Lightwave Research Centre, working on laser spectroscopy of molecular beams, before taking a position at Macquarie University’s Centre for Lasers and Applications and Department of Physics, where she is now Associate Professor in Physics and a member of MQ Photonics Research Centre. Her research interests include photonics, plasmonics and applications of lasers in medicine. She is currently Vice President of the Australian Optical Society, and a CI in the ARC Centre of Excellence CUDOS.
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Associate Professor David Lancaster
 An Incomplete Account of Laser Research for Defence Applications in Australia
This talk will introduce the role of lasers in defence, touch on several research projects conducted in Australia to develop lasers for defence applications, and offer some observations on future laser research for defence purposes.
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Associate Professor David G. Lancaster received the B.Sc. (Hons1) degree in Physics from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, in 1991, and a Ph.D. from Macquarie University in experimental laser physics in 1997. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Rice University, Houston, TX, for three years, developing compact diode-laser-based spectroscopic sensors for trace gas sensing. In 2000, he joined the Electronic Warfare Division at DSTO, Edinburgh where he worked on mid-infrared lasers and defence applications for 10 years. In 2010 he moved to Adelaide University to take up a senior research position in fibre lasers, microstructured composite fibres, and fibre fabrication. He has published more than 75 conference and journal papers.
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Professor Barry Luther-Davies
 A Quarter Century of Using Lasers Used for Physics at ANU
This presentation will describe some of directions of laser based research at ANU over the past 25years and how it impacts our current interests in photonics and quantum information processing.
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Barry Luther-Davies is a Professor of Laser Physics at the Australian National University with experience in the diverse areas of research including lasers, laser-matter interaction physics, photonics, optical materials and nonlinear optics. He completed a BSc and PhD at the University of Southampton, UK before joining ANU in 1974. His current research involves nonlinear optical materials and devices and photonics with a strong interest in the development of devices for optical signal processing as part of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems – CUDOS. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the Australian Academy for Technological Sciences and Engineering. He was awarded the Pawsey Medal of the Australian Academy of Science in 1986 for his contribution to laser-plasma interaction physics and was an ARC Federation Fellow from 2003-2008.
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Associate Professor Richard Mildren
 Diamond Raman Lasers
Diamond is a highly attractive laser material due to many of its characteristic properties such as its exceptionally high thermal conductivity and wide band gap. Considerable efforts in doping of diamond over the last two decades to realize semiconductor lasers, color centre lasers and rare-earth doped lasers have not yet led to practical devices. On the other hand, progress in the growth of large and pure synthetic single crystals by chemical vapour deposition has enabled us to show for the first time in 2008 that the new synthetic material was suitable for making practical Raman laser devices. Diamond has the highest Raman gain coefficient of all known materials (eg., approximately twice as high as the barium nitrate) and outstanding thermal conductivity (more than two orders of magnitude higher than most other Raman crystals) and optical transmission range (from 230 nm and extending to beyond 100 microns). These properties herald promise for substantially raising average output power and extending the spectral reach of Raman lasers in the ultraviolet and long wave infrared regions. In this seminar, our latest achievements in diamond Raman lasers will be reviewed and the results contrasted to other materials. The outlook for diamond Raman lasers will be discussed and key challenges for material development highlighted.
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Rich Mildren is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow within the Department of Physics and the MQ Photonics Research Centre at Macquarie University. He completed his PhD in the spectroscopy of the gain medium of infrared barium vapour lasers at Macquarie University in 1997. He studied ultrafast laser – plasma interactions at the Italian Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics before returning back to Macquarie with an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship to undertake research into the fundamental physics of high average power copper vapour laser systems and in the development of efficient vacuum ultraviolet sources. Since 2003, his research has concentrated on all-solid-state lasers sources and applications with particular focus on Raman conversion. He was Chief Scientific Officer for Lighthouse Technologies P/L 2005-2008, a Macquarie University spin off company that developed Raman laser technology and wavelength-configurable lasers to address needs in laser skin treatments. He returned to Macquarie in 2008 to pursue research in diamond Raman lasers, novel laser systems and laser applications.
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Professor Jesper Munch
 Lasers for Precision Measurements
The quest for single frequency lasers for precision length and Doppler measurements will be recounted, concentrating on solid state lasers. The challenges of the exquisite sensitivity for the detection of gravitational waves will be described.
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Jesper Munch began his career in laser research in the mid seventies when he joined TRW in Redondo Beach, California working on many types of lasers and laser techniques, including pioneering work in chemical, solid state and free electron lasers and optical phase conjugation. Since accepting the Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of Adelaide in 1990, he has concentrated on his life-long interests in holography and precision measurements using lasers, with particular emphasis on the use of stable lasers in coherent laser radar and the detection of gravitational waves. His degrees in Physics are from the University of Chicago and M.I.T.
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Professor Brian Orr
 Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy in Australia – Fifty Years With and Without Lasers
Since 1960, there have been significant developments in Australian atomic and molecular spectroscopy – many of them (but by no means all!) reliant on the availability of lasers.
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Brian Orr commenced his BSc degree at University of Sydney in 1960 (the year that lasers were discovered) and his subsequent PhD and postdoctoral work (in Bristol, UK and Ottawa, Canada, respectively) put him in the thick of early developments in nonlinear optics and laser applications, before he commenced his 40-year career in Australian universities. He is Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics at Macquarie University and Founding Director of its MQ Photonics Research Centre. His research interests are in nonlinear optics, studies of molecular dynamics and energetics, laser-based spectroscopic sensing, and photonic applications. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), the Australian Institute of Physics and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He was President of the Australian Optical Society (AOS) in 1996 – 98 and is currently a Deputy Editor of Optics Express. His awards include OSA’s 2004 W.H. Meggers Award “for outstanding work in spectroscopy” and the 2005 AOS W.H. (Beattie) Steel Medal.
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Dr Helen Pask
 Crystalline Raman Lasers: Past, Present and Future
Stimulated Raman scattering in crystalline materials was observed soon after the first laser was demonstrated. Today, crystalline Raman lasers offer a practical, versatile and efficient approach to frequency conversion.
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Dr Helen Pask was awarded a PhD in Physics by Macquarie University in 1992, and is internationally recognised for her contribution to laser physics. Her research into crystalline Raman lasers has generated over 70 journal and conference publications, which have been cited over 750 times. Her other research interests include Raman spectroscopy and Terahertz generation.
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Professor Jim Piper
 A Short History of Copper Lasers
For 2 decades at the end of the 20th century there was strong interest worldwide in high-average power copper vapour lasers mainly due to their potential application as sources for pumping tunable visible lasers for Atomic Vapour Laser Isotope Separation. Research focussed on overcoming the limitations to average power scaling imposed by a combination of several key kinetic processes in the repetitively pulsed gas discharge. After 10 years of research examining these processes, and taking advantage of research results from the US, UK and Russia, the CVL team in the Centre for Lasers and Applications at Macquarie University came up with a solution which was ultimately easy to implement and increased average power volumeric extraction efficiencies from CVLs by an order of magnitude. The talk will describe this work and its implications, and some diversions along the way in commercial development of CVLs for medical and other applications.
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After completing his BSc(Hons) and PhD (in Atomic Physics) at Otago University, New Zealand, Jim Piper worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Laser Physics at Oxford University (1971-75). He joined the staff of Macquarie University, Sydney in 1975 and was appointed as Professor in Physics in 1984. He was Director of the Australian Research Council Special Research Centre for Lasers and Applications from 1988 to 1996, and Dean of Information and Communications Sciences at Macquarie University from 1997 to 2002, before taking up the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) in 2003. He has had substantial experience with the Australian Research Council, including Research Training and Careers, and National and International Cooperation Committees. Jim Piper has been author or co-author of over 260 refereed journal articles and full-length conference proceedings, and has supervised to completion more than 30 PhD students. He is inventor or co-inventor of 12 awarded patents, and has had substantial experience in commercialisation of research-derived IP including by way of licensing and start-up companies. As Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) he has overall responsibility for strategy, policy and management of Macquarie’s Research, Higher Degree Research and Commercialisation programs.
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