University of Kent

Applied Optics Group (AOG): develops advanced optical systems for imaging and sensing, with applications in medicine, science and industry. One of our core strengts is in optical coherence tomography for medical imaging, alongside research interests in adaptive optics, microscopy, endoscopy, photoacoustics and spectroscopy. The group also has expertise in high-speed microwave photonics and acousto-, electro- and magneto-optics, and Akinetic Swept Optical Sources for Optical Coherence Tomography and Other Applications.

AOG occupies two floors in the University of Kent’s Photonics Centre in the Jennison Engineering Building on the Canterbury campus. We are well equipped with state-of-the-art lasers and optical tools and supported by technical services and workshops. Several rooms across the 400 square metres of floor space have been designed to host lasers and are equipped with water cooling, interlock and safety features.

We have a total of nine optical laboratories, two of them double-sized, hosting nine full-size vibration-isolation optical table systems as well as several other smaller, non-isolated optical breadboards. We have access to a class 1000 clean air suite and two class 100 laminar flow benches. We have access to highly-qualified mechanical and electronic workshops.

We maintain a number of fully-functional spectral domain and swept-source OCT systems suitable for pre-clinical studies, including a 1060 nm OCT system on cart, with movable arm, for anterior chamber, skin and art investigations; a 1300 nm OCT system for histology, an 820 nm OCT systems with versatile scanning (T, A, B and C-scans) on a chin rest, and further systems at 1050 nm and 1300 nm.

We have a wide range of semiconductor and fibre lasers/amplifiers, tunable laser sources for fluorescence lifetime imaging, large bandwidth sources such as superluminescent diodes and amplified spontaneous emission sources,  swept laser sources for OCT, extremely large bandwidth sources (NKT Photonics), Titanium Sapphire lasers, an argon laser, a CO2 laser and He-Ne lasers.

Supervisors

Prof. Adrian Podoleanu

Dr. George Dobre

Dr. Adrian Bradu

Dr. Michael Hughes

Dr. Manuel Marques

Publications

  • ‘Master/slave interferometry – ideal tool for coherence revival swept source optical coherence tomography‘, A. Bradu, S. Rivet, A. Podoleanu, Biomed. Opt. Express 7, 2453-2468 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.7.002453
  • ‘Master/slave optical coherence tomography imaging of eyelid basal cell carcinoma‘, C. Chin, A. Bradu, R. Lim, M. Khandwala, J. Schofield, L.Leick, A. Podoleanu, Appl. Opt. 55, 7378-7386 (2016), 10.1364/AO.55.007378
  • ‘Full-Field Swept Source MasterSlave Optical Coherence Tomography‘, J. Wang, A. Bradu, G. Dobre, A. Podoleanu, , IEEE Photonics Journal, Vol. 7(4), 3800114, (2015), 10.1109/JPHOT.2015.2461571
  • ‘Dual-mode-locking mechanism for an akinetic dispersive ring cavity swept source’, R. F. Stancu, A. Gh. Podoleanu, Opt. Letters, 40(7), 1322-1325 (2015), https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.40.001322