Holographically fabricated out-of-plane blazed gratings and channel waveguides in silica for integrated free-space beam delivery.

Grating couplers are widely used in integrated optics to generate free-space beams and facilitate localized interactions with systems such as atom or ion traps. However, etched devices often exhibit small-scale inconsistencies; exacerbated by the high index contrast of the devices, this can lead to phase errors, limiting devices to a sub-millimeter scale. Here we present the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of tilted, out-of-plane blazed gratings in planar silica fabricated by UV inscription using a 213 nm laser.

Short single-frequency self-pulsing Brillouin-Raman distributed feedback fiber laser.

We demonstrate that the stimulated Brillouin scattering of a 250 mm long distributed feedback Raman fiber laser can self-pulse with repetition rates up to 7 MHz, pulse widths of 25 ns, and peak powers of 1.2 W. While both CW and pulsed lasing are produced from a bespoke grating at 1119 nm this laser design could be constructed at almost any wavelength, as the Raman and Brillouin gain regions are relative to the pump wavelength.

Manipulation of Molecular Vibrations on Condensing Er State Densities for 1.5 μm Application.

Vibrational modes of chemical bonds in organic erbium (Er) materials play an important role in determining the efficiency of the 1.5 μm Er emission. This work studies the energy coupling of the Er intra-4f transitions and vibrational modes.

Adapting an integrated neglected tropical disease programme in response to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit at a time when the Ascend West and Central Africa programme was nearing the end of its first year of a 3-y programme. This article reflects on key lessons learnt from the rapid adaptation of an integrated neglected tropical disease (NTD) programme to support COVID-19 responses in 11 countries. It shares the experiences of adopting a flexible and directive approach, leveraging the NTD network and relationships, and working in collaboration with multiple ministry departments, commercial sector partners and the UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office to repurpose over £6 million of budget.