David N. Payne: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:33, 21 January 2016

Biography

An internationally renowned photonics engineer, David Payne’s innovations have revolutionized high-speed and long-distance optical communications by providing the ability to efficiently transfer vast amounts of data over large distances. With pioneering fiber fabrication research spanning 40 years that has impacted practically all of today’s optical fiber technology, Dr. Payne’s most crucial innovations were the development of the end-pumped fiber laser and the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) during the 1980s. Still by far the most successful optical amplifier, the EDFA, pumped by a tiny diode laser, allows the optical signals carrying Internet data to be periodically boosted within the fiber itself. This eliminated the need for expensive, capacity-choking, electronic signal regenerators and allowed today’s optical fiber transmission systems to span oceans without regeneration and with vast bandwidth. Dr. Payne’s work made massive deployment of optical fiber networks cost effective, and the EDFA became a key enabling technology that led to the explosive growth of the Internet.

Dr. Payne also made ground-breaking contributions to spun fibers for control of dispersion currently used in undersea fiber cables, the erbium/ytterbium cladding-pumped fiber amplifier used for cable television distribution, the distributed fiber temperature sensor used in oil wells and offshore wind farms, the “bow-tie” polarization-maintaining fiber used in many aircraft/spacecraft navigation gyroscopes, and the fiber preform analyzer used throughout modern fiber factories. Dr. Payne was also the first to identify the bandwidth advantage of the 1.3-μm wavelength window.

Dr. Payne also conducted research for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) during 2000–2004, which included ideas for using parallel, beam-combined laser circuits for missile defense and demonstrated the first kilowatt fiber laser. This technology is now being explored for the next generation of particle accelerators at CERN. Dr. Payne’s current research focuses on high-power industrial fiber lasers for cutting, welding, and marking as an alternative to conventional lasers.

An IEEE member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the Royal Society (UK) and the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Payne is the director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, Hampshire, UK. Payne was the recipient of the 2014 IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Biography  ==
+{{Biography
+|Image=Payne David.jpg
+|Associated organizations=DARPA
+|Fields of study=Lasers
+|Awards=[[IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award]]
+}}
+An internationally renowned photonics engineer, David Payne’s innovations have revolutionized high-speed and long-distance optical communications by providing the ability to efficiently transfer vast amounts of data over large distances. With pioneering fiber fabrication research spanning 40 years that has impacted practically all of today’s optical fiber technology, Dr. Payne’s most crucial innovations were the development of the end-pumped fiber laser and the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) during the 1980s.
+Still by far the most successful optical amplifier, the EDFA, pumped by a tiny diode laser, allows the optical signals carrying Internet data to be periodically boosted within the fiber itself. This eliminated the need for expensive, capacity-choking, electronic signal regenerators and allowed today’s optical fiber transmission systems to span oceans without regeneration and with vast bandwidth. Dr. Payne’s work made massive deployment of optical fiber networks cost effective, and the EDFA became a key enabling technology that led to the explosive growth of the Internet.
-During his four-decade career at the U.K.’s University of Southampton, David Payne has designed some of the highest power [[Fiber Optics|fiber lasers]] in the world and generated a host of fiber components in the telecoms and sensor arenas. He pioneered several key related developments, including photonics-based technologies for telecommunications, optical sensors, nanophotonics and optical materials. He also led the teams that invented the silica single-mode fiber laser and amplifier and broke the kilowatt barrier for high power fibre laser output. He was the first to use phosphorous as a core dopant to achieve numerous processing advantages and developed the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which created a revolution in optical-fiber communications.
+Dr. Payne also made ground-breaking contributions to spun fibers for control of dispersion currently used in undersea fiber cables, the erbium/ytterbium cladding-pumped fiber amplifier used for cable television distribution, the distributed fiber temperature sensor used in oil wells and offshore wind farms, the “bow-tie” polarization-maintaining fiber used in many aircraft/spacecraft navigation gyroscopes, and the fiber preform analyzer used throughout modern fiber factories. Dr. Payne was also the first to identify the bandwidth advantage of the 1.3-μm wavelength window.
-A Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, [[The IEE|the IEE]], and the Optical Society of America, he is currently director of the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre.
+Dr. Payne also conducted research for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) during 2000–2004, which included ideas for using parallel, beam-combined laser circuits for missile defense and demonstrated the first kilowatt fiber laser. This technology is now being explored for the next generation of particle accelerators at CERN. Dr. Payne’s current research focuses on high-power industrial fiber lasers for cutting, welding, and marking as an alternative to conventional lasers.
-[[Category:Optical_fiber_communication]]
+An IEEE member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the Royal Society (UK) and the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Payne is the director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, Hampshire, UK. Payne was the recipient of the 2014 [[IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award]].
-[[Category:Optical_fiber_applications]]
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne}}
+[[Category:Fiber_optics]]
+[[Category:Lasers,_lighting_&_electrooptics]]
+[[Category:Optics]]
 [[Category:Photonics]]