A researcher in Trinity College Dublin has been awarded significant funding to investigate laser technology.
Professor John Donegan from the School of Physics in Trinity College has been awarded €1.46m through Science Foundation Ireland’s Principal Investigator scheme.
The funding will be used to investigate how laser technology could deliver more energy efficient devices for future optical networks.
The research could lead to broadband speeds exceeding 100 MB per second. This research is of particular interest to the ICT sector.
"The world as we know it depends critically on the wired internet for communications" said Professor Donegan. "A major impediment to growth in the future is the electrical power required to operate the net. Our research will investigate a range of new laser structures that operate with much improved efficiency and I look forward to further testing our devices with industry."
Professor Donegan is an Investigator in two Science Foundation Ireland research centres in Trinity: AMBER, the materials science research centre, and CONNECT, the centre for future networks and communications.
This award, which will benefit both centres, will run until 2022 and will support a team of five researchers, two post-doctoral researchers and three graduate students.