Summary
Mike Damzen is Professor of Experimental Laser Physics at Imperial College London. He is Head of the Photonics Group whose research activities including laser technology, applied optics, biomedical imaging, biophotonics, and industrial photonics applications. He leads the research team of the Nonlinear Optics sub-group with activities in lasers and nonlinear optical techniques.
His research includes a number of novel high power laser architectures, technologies and techniques from self-organising (holographic) lasers to ultra-high gain and tunable diode-pumped solid-state laser systems.
He currently leads a programme on the development of wavelength tunable laser technology for space and airborne remote sensing (e.g. atmosphere and vegetation) - with long standing support from the European Space Agency (ESA). He has demonstrated breakthrough development of tunable-wavelength diode-pumped Alexandrite laser technology, including world-highest power operation and first Q-switched operation. The laser technology is being developed towards specifications for remote sensing (e.g short pulse, high pulse rate in near-IR and UV) and with space-compliant engineering. Other configurations are being investigated for other compact, low-cost applications, such as in biophotonics.
He was Academic Founder of Midaz Lasers Ltd, and acted as Director and Chief Scientific Officer over its operational period from 2006 until its successful trade sale to one of the world's premier laser companies in 2012. Midaz designed, assembled and sold engineered laser and amplifier products to the precision laser manufacturing market, incorporating patented solid-state laser technology arising from his research.
Publications
Journals
Liang M, Minassian A, Damzen MJ, 2023, High-energy acousto-optic Q-switched alexandrite laser with wavelength tunable fundamental and UV second harmonic generation, Optics Express, Vol:31, ISSN:1094-4087, Pages:42428-42438
Tawy G, Davidson NP, Churchill G, et al., 2023, Temperature-tunable UV generation using an Alexandrite laser and PPLN waveguides, Optics Express, Vol:31, ISSN:1094-4087, Pages:22757-22765
Tawy G, Minassian A, Damzen MJ, 2023, Power-scaled CW Alexandrite lasers, Applied Physics B-lasers and Optics, Vol:129, ISSN:0946-2171
Damzen M, Xiao H, Jiang X, 2023, Alexandrite lasers with blue-diode-pumping, Optics Express, Vol:31, ISSN:1094-4087, Pages:5832-5842
Conference
Liang M, Minassian A, Damzen M, 2023, Acousto-optic Q-switched Alexandrite Laser with Wavelength Tuning and Second Harmonic Generation