Biography/Career Progression
2000 – 2004 PhD, High power
surface emitting semiconductor lasers, University of
Strathclyde
2004 – 2009 Royal Academy of Engineering/EPSRC
Research Fellowship, Institute of Photonics, University of
Strathclyde
2006 – 2012 Senior Research Fellow and Associate Team
Leader, Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde
2011 – Present EPSRC Challenging Engineering Award,
Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde
2012 – Present Research Team Leader, Institute of
Photonics, University of Strathclyde
Academy support
Jennifer Hastie was supported by a
Royal Academy of Engineering
Research Fellowship. This gave her
the opportunity to apply for further
research funding immediately after
her PhD. She said, “It enabled me to
build up a research record and put me
on the academic track earlier than is
usual. It gave me a step up and any
other research success that I’ve had
has stemmed from that.”
Other support
During her Academy Fellowship, Dr
Hastie has been a principal and a
co-investigator on different research
projects funded by EPSRC totalling
£1.1 million; other EPSRC projects
have followed since. Her current
Challenging Engineering grant of £1
million supports the research work of
her team at the Institute of Photonics
and she is actively pursuing other
support from research organisations
and industrial funders.
Research impact
The focus of Dr Hastie’s research
is the development of new types of
laser, strongly motivated by potential
practical applications. “We work
closely with people in industry and
other research fields who have good
knowledge of the applications,” she
said, “so we know what the ‘useful’
performance of a laser is and can then
guide our work towards it.”
The SDLs produced through her work
are more compact and more efficient
than more conventional laser sources
at similar wavelengths, and the added
tuneability of her laser sources means
that there will be a wide range of
applications ready for them. Current
fields that could benefit from these
tuneable lasers include biophotonics
– the study of biological cells and
tissues using optical techniques –
and spectroscopic analysis of gases.
“Many of the early applications are in
scientific and research laboratories,”
Dr Hastie said, “but the beam
quality, flexibility and tuneability
mean that wider application outside
laboratory work is likely, and their
compactness means the lasers can be
accommodated more easily inside
systems than other laser types.”
Future challenges
Dr Hastie’s current research
builds upon her earlier work and
aims to develop further both the
optically pumped SDL technology
and the range of applications
it can be applied to. Systems
for ultra- precision lithography,
spectroscopy and metrology are
among those being investigated.
She has also worked on an EPSRC
Engineering Platform grant on the
development of advanced solid-state
laser systems and a grant on diamondbased Raman lasers where her group
was able to demonstrate the first
tuneable diamond- based laser.
Dr Hastie is now gearing up for the
next scientific challenges in her
research. She said, “We’re looking
to take our experience in short
wavelength SDLs and to get the full
potential from the unique capabilities
of this type of laser source. In
particular, we are looking at very
narrow spectral linewidths or long
coherence lengths – what we refer
to as high finesse p