ÌÇÐÄÊÓÆµ

Professor Michael Strain

Institute of Photonics

Contact

Personal statement

My research group has expertise in the design and micro-fabrication of Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technologies across a wide range of material platforms. ÌýWe develop new materials for specialist applications and collaborate with industrial partners to ensure the future scalability and foundry compatability of these techniques.

Ìý

Silicon PICs:ÌýI have a significant background in the design and micro-fabrication of integrated silicon photonics and have developed devices for applications from sensing and information processing, to cavity-enhanced non-linear interactions and quantum optics. ÌýIn particular I am interested in the development of scalable PICs that can be easily electronically tuned and addressed with simple fibre optics and am developing technologies to take this technology from device to systems levels. ÌýThis work is supported by strong collaboration with the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre at the University of Glasgow. Ìý

Future Materials: ÌýNot all optical functions can be realised with standard foundry material platforms such as silicon and InP. ÌýWe develop new material systems for specific applications, such as ultra-thin-film diamond for quantum optics, together with the advanced micro-processing required to create optical devices. ÌýWe have interests in single crystal diamond, III-nitrides and complex oxide materials.

Heterogeneous Integration: ÌýMany integrated photonic material platforms have particular strengths (e.g. III-V's for light generation and detection) but are limited in complimentary areas. ÌýIn this work we seek to marry different materials in single systems to make best use of the material properties where they are needed in PICs. ÌýFor example, by locally bonding III-V materials to silicon waveguides, the light generation of the III-V's can be created where necessary in a low-loss complex silicon PIC. Ìý

This technique also allows photonic integration of specialist materials like diamond with standard PIC technology, giving flexibility in circuit design and the prospect for scaling where materials are scarce and monlithic PIC technology is prohibitive. ÌýOther areas of interest are hetereogeneous PICs for mid-IR applications.

Micro-LED imaging arrays:ÌýWe are developing high speed LED displays with pixel dimensions of only a few tens of microns. ÌýThese devices are used for data transmission (Gb/s), covert imaging and the control and navigation of autonomous robotic agents without the need for electrical signal transmission links. ÌýÌý

Back to staff profile

Publications

, , ,
Optics Continuum Vol 5, pp. 800-810 (2026)
, , Ghosh Saptarsi, , , Kappers Menno, , Oliver Rachel A,
Optics Letters Vol 51, pp. 993-996 (2026)
Peng Kun, Morgan Nicholas P, , Wagner Ford M, Siday Thomas, Xia Chelsea Q, Dede Didem, Boureau Victor, Piazza Valerio, , , , , Fu Lan, Tan Hark H, Jagadish Chennupati, Morral Anna Fontcuberta i, Johnston Michael B
2025 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC) IEEE Photonics Conference 2025 2025 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC), pp. 1-2 (2025)
, , ,
Optics Letters Vol 50, pp. 7227-7230 (2025)
, , , McKendry Jonathan, Gao Qian, Tan Hoe, Jagadish Chennupati, ,
2025 30th Microoptics Conference (2025)
Boes Andreas, , Chang Lin, Nader Nima
Applied Physics Letters Vol 127 (2025)

Back to staff profile

Research Interests

  • Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits (in the near and mid-IR)
  • Heterogeneous integration (e.g. III-V on SOI)
  • Wide-bandgap integrated optics (diamond, GaN)
  • Waveguide and on-chip resonators for NLO
  • III-V micro-lasers
  • Chip-scale vector beam sources
  • Structured illumination for imaging and data comms.

Professional Activities

Speaker
25/10/2025
Contributor
8/12/2020
Invited speaker
4/10/2020
Contributor
28/9/2020
Contributor
28/9/2020
Contributor
28/9/2020

Projects

Strain, Michael (Principal Investigator) Hastie, Jennifer (Co-investigator) Graham, Nathan (Research Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2029
Strain, Michael (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2029
Strain, Michael (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2026
Strain, Michael (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2026
Lunn, Rebecca (Principal Investigator) Strain, Michael (Principal Investigator) Hurtado, Antonio (Co-investigator) Stillings, Mark (Co-investigator) Quinn, Gemma (Research Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2028
Strain, Michael (Principal Investigator) Caspani, Lucia (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 28-Jan-2027

Back to staff profile

Contact

Professor Michael Strain
Institute of Photonics

Email: michael.strain@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4703