The ultimate ambition of the proposed research programme is reduced environmental impact of aviation and power generating gas turbine engines. Serious emissions reduction can only come from better understanding and modelling of the combustion and emissions generation processes and the roles of different fuels. Several disruptive chemical and particulate species measurement methods will be developed for detailed combustion zone and exhaust characterisation. These transformational new measurement capabilities will be applied to establishing, for the first, time the spatial and temporal evolution of combustion species and unwanted emissions within the engines. Such measurements will inform new understanding of the combustion and emissions generation processes and enable new technical strategies to ultimately deliver improved engine and fuel technologies for reduced emissions.

Almost from its discovery there have been grand hopes for Raman spectroscopy to be an ubiquitous tool for chemical analysis. It has the potential to identify substances easily and distinctly from fingerprint-like spectra. This can be done with simple photonic architecture, allowing for potential portable and miniaturised form factors. Unfortunately the overwhelming fluorescence background common to all analytes obscures the weak Raman signal and thus makes this dream unrealised. Finally wavelength modulated Raman spectroscopy (WMRS) represents an innovative solution that delivers fast, fluorescence-free Raman spectra. WMRS has a wide range of potential applications in the healthcare industry from discriminating between cancerous and healthy tissue, to determining drug concentrations in biological liquids and identifying the presence of inflammation and infection. To realise this innovative development MSL require a ‘biophotonics engineer’ that has the correct specialised skills to carry out this development which are not currently available at MSL. MSL is looking to develop WMRS into a novel biophotonics tool capable of revolutionising Raman spectroscopic analysis. The aim of this project is to develop an innovation programme centred on WMRS for biological analysis. However, to realise this innovative development MSL require a ‘biophotonics engineer’ that has the correct specialised skills to carry out this development which are not currently available at MSL. This includes experience and knowledge across photonics development, biological analysis, Raman spectroscopy and programming. To meet this innovation opportunity MSL needs to overcome barriers to recruitment by widening its recruitment pool from UK to EU and increasing visibility. This project provides the framework to overcome these barriers and deliver the envisaged project results and impacts.

In 2005, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Hall and Hänsch for their breakthrough in spectroscopy and metrology. They created a laser called an "optical comb". Combs are often referred to as optical rulers: their spectrum consists of a precise sequence of discrete, equally spaced narrow laser lines, which represent precise "marks" in frequency. This achievement led to a revolution in metrology. Thanks to these peculiar lasers, high-precision atomic clocks could be developed which unveiled a new world in just a few years, allowing measurement in astronomy, particle physics, biology and geology with unprecedented accuracy. The possibility of miniaturizing such sources is pursued by scientists around the world, to create tiny ultra-precise "optical hearts" for future high-tech devices. Linked to an atomic reference, a micro-comb can be a fundamental part of a miniature atomic clock, envisioned in the UK as a breakthrough 2.0 quantum technology. A clock is generically constituted by a reference and a counter, respectively the pendulum and the clockwork in old-fashioned clocks. In state-of-the-art atomic clocks, such parts are an atomic optical reference and an optical frequency comb. When locked, for example, to narrow atomic transitions, the optical frequency comb acts as the counter of an atomic clock and can enable accuracies of 10^(-18)s. The realization of these optical sources in compact forms based on small-scale, micro-metre size devices, will represent a fundamental breakthrough, especially in terms of complexity management, power consumption, costs and handling. Presently, optical comb technology is bulky, fitting the size of a small car. Low footprint, low-power consuming comb sources (enabling battery-powered or wall-plug operation, and thus portable implementations) would represent a revolution in many fields. A micro-comb based atomic clock is a transformative technology, strategic in keeping pace with our ever-increasing need for high-precision timing in computing, financial transactions and communication, fundamentally affecting the way we build our social infrastructure. It will also open up new possibilities for innovation and research across many areas of technology. These tiny pulsating devices could be used to enable measurement of low concentrations of gases, as part of an instrument for breath analysis, or for detecting gas leakages in quality control and safety. They will be used in space to measure the red-shift of the stars, as part of extremely sensitive gravitational sensors mapping the surface of the earth helping our agricultural system or the development of complex city underground-infrastructures. They will become incorporated into and reduce the size of many types of new and existing sensors and they will be used as a precise time reference in navigation equipment. Backing up this vision, the objective of this proposal is to establish and translate novel technology for the development of compact micro-combs, capable of producing a set of precise optical laser lines. The micro-comb is generated on a micrometric scale resonator, which will be produced by laser engraving of glass rods or with commercial optical fibre technology. This device will be inserted in a fibre laser cavity, to produce a robust and broadband optical radiation composed of equally spaced laser lines. We will study strategies to link these lines to precise optical references, which could be eventually replaced by state-of-the-art atomic references, obtained by trapping a single ion or cooling a few atoms. The technology transfer will be maximised by strong industrial partnerships and use of commercial, off-the-shelf, optical technologies, resulting in a turn-key prototype ready for the UK commercial exploitation.

Bladder cancer is among the most expensive diseases in oncology in terms of treatment costs; each procedure requires days of hospitalisation and recurrence rates are high. Current unmet clinical needs can be addressed by optical methods due to the combination of non-invasive and real-time capture of unprecedented biomedical information. The MIB objective is to provide robust, easy-to-use, cost-effective optical methods with superior sensitivity and specificity to enable a step-change in point-of-care diagnostics of bladder cancer. The concept relies on combining optical methods (optical coherence tomography, multi-spectral opto-acoustic tomography, shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy, and multiphoton microscopy) providing structural, biochemical and functional information. The hypothesis is that such combination enables in situ diagnosis of bladder cancer with superior sensitivity and specificity due to unprecedented combined anatomic, biochemical and molecular tissue information. The step-change is that this hybrid concept is provided endoscopically for in vivo clinical use. The project relies on development of new light sources, high-speed imaging systems, unique imaging fibre bundles, and endoscopes, combined and applied clinically. The consortium comprises world-leading academic organisations in a strong partnership with innovative SMEs and clinical end-users. Through commercialization of this novel imaging platform, MIB is expected to reinforce leading market positions in medical devices and healthcare for the SMEs in areas where European industry is already strong. The impact is that improved diagnostic procedures facilitate earlier onset of effective treatment, thus recurrence and follow-up procedures would be reduced by 10%, i.e., reducing costs. Using MIB technology, healthcare cost savings in the order of 360M€ are expected for the whole EU. Equally important, prognosis and patient quality of life would improve drastically.