In addition to the development of novel phosphate-based glasses, silicate Bioglasses and borate glasses, the group has also been working on the development of mid infra-red photonic fibres for biosensing medical applications based on chalcogenide and tellurite glasses.
Recent achievements include demonstration of erbium III doped into nano-glass-ceramics exhibits the broadest emission reported to date, to our knowledge, at 1.55 micron wavelength compared to when doped into other hosts. These doped nano-glass-ceramics have potential as next generation micro-amplifiers of far greater system flexibility than current amplifiers for telecom systems.
Furthermore, all of the above investigations are underpinned by investigating structure-property relationships to allow optimised glass compositions to be developed for healthcare and photonic applications. The atomic scale characterisation of these materials has mainly been conducted using centralised facilities at the Diamond Light Source (DLS) and the ISIS Neutron Spallation Source. The current focus is on using the results to understand the structural origin of changes in properties including refractive index, viscosity and dissolution profiles.