FROM DISRUPTER TO LEADER

Back in the ‘90s, fibre lasers were a disruptive technology of which engineers were just beginning to discover the potential. Fastforward 25 years and they have become totally indispensable.

Life without fibre lasers would be almost impossible today. They are used in manufacturing consumer electronics, and for cutting and welding in the car industry. They are used in medical procedures such as laser eye surgery. More recently, they are being used in battery manufacturing for electric vehicles. And, not least, they enable the internet.

Things were very different when Dr Mike Durkin studied for his Master’s in Physics with Laser Science, followed by his PhD, in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton in the late ‘90s.

“Telecommunications was a very hot topic back then,” he said. “It was a really exciting time to be working in telecommunications and fibre-related technology. Southampton and the ORC had already been pivotal in developing the Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier – an optical amplifier – which allowed the transatlantic propagation of signals in optical fibres without converting them to electric signals in the middle. This, and the optical fibre roll out of telecommunications, was starting to facilitate the internet.

“The challenges were in addressing the amount of data that can go down one fibre, in particular by multiplexing different wavelengths of light. A lot of the research and breakthroughs were related to controlling and filtering and amplifying light to support the development of the internet. My PhD was looking at a small part of that.”

When Mike completed his PhD in 1999, Southampton Photonics was in pre-startup mode, looking to commercialise the fibre laser research being developed at the ORC. It was the perfect timing, as Mike joined Southampton Photonics, bringing his expertise on Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBGs) with him. FBGs are components that are written into optical fibres using ultraviolet lasers that allow you to reflect certain wavelengths, or colours of light, in a very specific way.

“I was responsible for transferring FBG technology from the University into Southampton Photonics, which later became SPI – Southampton Photonics Incorporated – Lasers,” he said.

SPI Lasers starts up

SPI Lasers spun out in 2000. Mike was the company’s first full-time employee, and he has worked for them on research collaboration and commercialisation ever since.

He began by working on product development and then went on to lead the team that developed the optical technology of the first continuous-wave lasers that the company produced for industry. From 2006 to 2016, Mike led the technology and product of SPI Lasers’ pulsed laser production line, before becoming Head of Technology.

In 2008, SPI Lasers was acquired by the world’s biggest laser manufacturer, TRUMPF GmbH, for £27.8 million. The University has a long-term strategic partnership with TRUMPF. Mike has been Head of Laser Technology at TRUMPF since 2020.

“With the incorporation into TRUMPF, which happened in 2019, there is a bigger collaborative research and development effort around fibre lasers,” explained Mike. “We work with people in Germany, the USA and China.”

Reflecting on his time at SPI Lasers, Mike said: “At the beginning of my time at SPI, fibre lasers were a disruptive, challenger technology. It took a while for people to be convinced that they were suitable for deployment in industry. But now, they are the absolute de facto standard.

“They have also increased in their power capability by a factor of at least 1,000 since the late ‘90s – going from 10 watts of power to tens of kilowatts of power.”

Future thinking

Laser research is, and always has been, about enabling more power and better costs. As those fundamentals continue to be improved, the future for fibre laser technology looks as disruptive as its past.

“I think there will be an increasing use of fibre laser technology in other fields, such as medicine for treatments such as laser eye surgery and also general surgery,” said Mike. “There are also strong prospects for fibre lasers in defence and LiDAR [Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method]. The future, I think, will be about bringing the advantages of fibre lasers that have been demonstrated in industry into these and other fields.”

Dr Mike Durkin