News

 

10/07/2012

COSMOS Lasers website goes live!

 

 
10/07/2012

Harry Coles invited to give plenary lecture at SPIE Optics & Photonics

Harry has been invited to be the plenary speaker at the Organic Photonics & Electronics symposium, at this year's SPIE Optics & Photonics conference. The lecture is on Wed 15 August 2012, at the San Diego Convention Centre, is titled, "Coherent and Random Liquid Crystal Lasers" and will include some of the latest COSMOS Lasers technology developments.

 

26/06/2012

COSMOS Lasers team awarded runners-up in ERA Foundation Award by RAE

The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) awarded Damian, Philip and Stephen runners-up prize for the ERA Foundation Award 2012, "in recognition of outstanding entrepreneurial research in the field of electro-technology". They were awarded a certificate at the Academy Awards Dinner, at the Royal Opera House in London, for their work on COSMOS Lasers and the commercialisation of liquid crystal laser technology.

 

 
08/03/2012

COSMOS liquid crystal laser technology highlighted by Electro Optics magazine

The Technology Focus of the March 2012 edition of Electro Optics features a full-page article all about the tuneable liquid crystal lasers research currently being undertaken at CMMPE as part of the COSMOS TT project. The article also features an interview with Philip Hands, describing the recently constructed COSMOS laser demonstrator unit and the technology upon which it is based.

A copy of the article, titled Twist and Shout, can be downloaded here.

 

19/02/2012

Philip Hands & Harry Coles interviewed by "The Naked Scientists" for live BBC Radio

The award-winning BBC radio show "The Naked Scientists" invited Philip Hands and Harry Coles into the studio to take part in their focus show on lasers. They were interviewed about recent research developments by the team on the COSMOS projects. They were asked how liquid crystals can be used to make compact tuneable lasers, which the team are commercialising for applications such as portable medical diagnostics. There was also a live demonstration of liquid crystal tuneable laser technology. The show was broadcast live on 19th February, 2012, to several BBC local radio stations, including BBC Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northants, and is also available to download as a podcast/mp3.

The radio show webpage can be found here.
A recording of the radio show can be listened to here.
A transcript of the interview can be viewed here.

This news was also highlighted by the Department of Engineering news pages (21/03/2012)


03/02/2012

COSMOS project ranked as "internationally leading" by EPSRC review panel

A recent review panel from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ranked the Basic Technology (BT) grant, Coherent Optical Sources from Micromolecular Ordered Structures (COSMOS), "internationally leading", highlighting it as an exemplar of successful BT projects.

Read the EPSRC report here.

 

 
06/12/2011

COSMOS Lasers presents at Meerkats & Avatars media event

COSMOS Lasers team members, Philip Hands and Damian Gardiner, exhibited the COSMOS liquid crystal laser demonstrator today at a marketing and PR event called Meerkats and Avatars, held at the St John's Innovation Centre, Cambridge. The event was attended by numerous local investers, entreprenuers and media, and marked the first public exhibition of COSMOS Lasers. It is planned that COSMOS Lasers will soon become a spin-out company, based upon the EPSRC-funded COSMOS and COSMOS TT research projects being undertaken at CMMPE.

Click here for details of the Meerkats and Avatars event and exhibitors.
Click here for a live YouTube video interview by Cabume.
Clisk here for a video of the COSMOS tuneable LC laser demonstrator.

 

 
04/05/2010

EPSRC awards COSMOS Technology Translation Grant

EPSRC recently announced the award of funds to a Cambridge team led by Prof. Harry Coles, for a two-year Technology Translation project, starting December 2010. The grant aims to build upon the excellent research carried out during the COSMOS Basic Technology Grant, which comes to an end in November 2010. Collaborative investiagtors on the grant include Dr. Tim Willkinson, Prof. Sir Richard Friend (Cavendish Lab) and Professor Ian White (Dept. of Engineering).

 

 
20/04/2009

COSMOS lasers research highlighted by Nature Photonics & Dept. of Engineering

The April 2009 edition of Nature Photonics features an "out of the lab" news article focussing upon liquid crystal lasers research. It highlights CMPPE's research on simultaneous red, green & blue polychromatic liquid crystal laser arrays, and represents the 2nd occasion that Nature Photonics has highlighted CMMPE's LC lasers research. Furthermore, the Cambridge University Engineering Department's website front-page currently features a news article highlighting the same research. These news articles are in addition to the recent article in Laser Focus World (see CMMPE news item 09/01/09), which also highlights the same work.

A new twist to tuning lasers, Nature Photonics (April 2009), Volume 3 No 4 pp177-236
Flowing crystals glow, Nature Photonics (October 2008), Volume 2 No 10 pp581-638
Liquid-crystal laser promises low-fabrication-cost display, Laser Focus World (January 2009)

Polychromatic liquid crystal laser arrays towards display applications
S.M. Morris, P.J.W. Hands, S. Findeisen-Tandel, R.H. Cole, T.D. Wilkinson, H.J. Coles
Optics Express, 16 (23), 18827-18837, (2008)

This research is part of the COSMOS project; an EPSRC-funded basic technology grant.

 

09/01/09

COSMOS liquid crystal lasers research highlighted in Laser Focus World

In their January 2009 edition, the international scientific magazine, Laser Focus World, published an article highlighting recent research carried out by members of CMMPE on polychromatic liquid crystal laser arrays. It details how this technology shows promise for use in developing low-cost, high-performance laser displays. Click here for the Laser focus World article. Alternatively, the original publication in Optics Express (October 2008) is detailed below:

Polychromatic liquid crystal laser arrays towards display applications
S.M. Morris, P.J.W. Hands, S. Findeisen-Tandel, R.H. Cole, T.D. Wilkinson, H.J. Coles
Optics Express, 16 (23), 18827-18837, (2008)

 
19/06/2008

COSMOS Research Showcase Event

The COSMOS Research Showcase Event took place today. It was widely attended by academics, insdustrial representatives and the EPSRC, and has received generous positive feedback. Congratulations and thank you to all CMMPE members for their efforts in helping to make this event such a sucess.