Research Laboratories
The Centre’s research is distributed across 4 labs in the CREATE building and 3 labs in the Tyndall National Institute. These labs are nominally designated as Femtosecond Physics, Laser Dynamics, Photoluminescence Spectroscopy, Nanophotonics, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Spectroscopy and High Power Lab, although there is significant overlap and interaction amongst them. This section gives a brief overview of the equipment available in each. For details of the activities performed, refer to the Research Activities page.
Femtosecond Physics Laboratory
The Femtosecond Physics Laboratory houses a two-colour pump-probe spectroscopy setup, the key elements of which are; Coherent Chameleon Ultra Ti:Sapphire laser, APE GmbH Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) PP Automatic and Electrophysics Corp. MicronViewer 7290 Infrared Camera.
Laser Dynamics Laboratory
The Laser Dynamics Laboratory focuses on the study of non-linear dynamical processes in semiconductor lasers. Equipment available for this includes; Frequency Resolved Electro-Absorption Gating (FREAG) Pulse Analyser, Agilent DSO91204A Infiniium Oscilloscope and Lightwave Probe Station.
Photoluminescence Spectroscopy Laboratory
The Photoluminescence Spectroscopy Laboratory is dedicated to the study of bandstructure and transitions in semiconductor systems. Key experimental setups available for this are; Time-Resolved Photoluminescence (TRPL) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy.
Nanophotonics Laboratory
The nanophotonics laboratory is dedicated to the study of nanophotonics, using nanoscale devices (smaller than a hair’s width) to control and manipulate light. Key experimental setups for this are photonic crystals, hybrid lasers, metamaterials, data communications and silicon light emission. Some key pieces of equipment in the nanophotonics laboratory are the oscilloscope and the optical spectrum analyser (OSA). The oscilloscope is used to test the functionality of equipment that generates an electrical signal and the OSA is a precision instrument designed to measure and display the distribution of power of an optical source over a specified wavelength span.
Scanning Electron Microscopy Laboratory
The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) laboratory houses the SEM microscope. With variable pressure Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), non-conducting and water containing samples can be imaged to nanometre resolution. The SEM imaging can be combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to identify and quantify the element constituents of the sample under test. CAPPA also conducts Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) in this laboratory.
Spectroscopy Laboratory
The spectroscopy laboratory focuses on the research of the interaction between radiation and matter. CAPPA’s spectroscopic platform is primarily based on Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy techniques and its capabilities cover the spectral range from ultraviolet through the visible, near IR and mid IR and beyond the Terahertz region. CAPPA also carries out energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Some of the key pieces of equipment in this laboratory are the Raman microscope and the Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) IR imaging microscope. The Raman microscope has excitation wavelengths in the Deep Ultraviolet (250 nm), visible (532 nm, 630 nm) and Near Infrared (785nm,1064nm). The microscope can be facilitated to work with the SEM, atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical tweezing, photoluminescence in the future.
High Power Laboratory
The high power laboratory is dedicated to the study of hyperspectral imaging system and Deep UV spectroscopy. The HySpex SWIR – 384 enables CAPPA to offer an extensive range of services to help with their customers growing needs. This hyperspectral system can be used for remote sensing, machine vision, optical sorting, medical imaging, life science applications, spectroscopy instrumentation, automotive and transport, trace detection, biotechnology, precision agriculture, industrial monitoring, wood process, sorting and security.
In this laboratory, CAPPA also has an optical source characterization suite. This includes Beam profiler (350nm-1100nm), assorted optical power meters (180nm-20000nm) and spectrometers (190nm-1100nm) and LIV characterization with programmable source.