Jennifer Hastie is a Reader and Research Team Leader at the Institute of Photonics with a main interest in optically-pumped semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs, also known as VECSELs) for high spatial and spectral brightness and broad tunability at novel wavelengths. 

Jennifer recently held an EPSRC Challenging Engineering Award (EP/I022791/1) building the team’s research in the area of narrow linewidth SDLs with advanced wavelength flexibility for applications including metrology and lithography; spanning ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectral regions through the use of novel materials and intracavity nonlinear frequency conversion techniques.  A research highlight has been the development of intracavity-pumped tunable crystalline Raman lasers, including CW diamond Raman lasers, pumped within the high finesse cavities of tunable SDLs. 

As a result of the group’s work in the area of narrow linewidth SDLs, Jennifer is the Strathclyde University Lead Investigator for the UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Metrology (www.quantumsensors.org), collaborating with Hub Director Prof Kai Bongs of the University of Birmingham to develop lasers for optical clock systems.  The Hub, which also includes leading research groups from the Universities of Glasgow, Nottingham, Southampton and Sussex, is an international centre of excellence that will translate state-of-the-art lab technology into deployable practical devices with the academics working with >60 industry partners to translate research into marketable applications.

Biography: Jennifer joined the IoP as a PhD student in 2000.  In 2004 she was awarded a 5 year research fellowship by the Royal Academy of Engineering to develop visible and ultraviolet semiconductor disk lasers for applications in biophotonics and was Principal Investigator on two further grants funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC): for work on ultraviolet SDLs (EP/D061032/1) and on InP quantum dot SDLs (EP/E056989/1), the latter in partnership with Dr Andrey Krysa of the University of Sheffield and Prof Peter Smowton of Cardiff University.  She has also been a co-investigator on an EPSRC Engineering Platform Grant for the development of advanced solid-state laser systems (EP/E006000/1) and a grant on diamond Raman lasers (EP/E056989/1) with IoP colleague Prof Alan Kemp.

Jennifer was the Programme Chair of the VECSELs conference at SPIE Photonics West 2013 and was an active member of the Technical Programme Committee of the international OSA conference Advanced Solid-State Photonics 2009-2013. She is a Senior Member of the Optical Society of America and a Senior Member of the IEEE.