Education
University of Southampton.
University of Southampton.
He has made several contributions in areas of optical fibre communications over the last fifty years and his work has had an impact on telecommunications and laser technology. Payne’s work spans diverse areas of photonics, from telecommunications and optical sensors to nanophotonics and optical materials, including the introduction of the first optical fibre drawing tower in a university. Payne’s work in fibre fabrication in the 1970s resulted in many of the special fibres used today.
He led the team at Southampton that invented the erbium-doped fibre amplifier, a type of optical amplifier, The idea was adopted at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, United States of America and the two teams between them developed much of the EDFA technology we know today.
The EDFA was a crucial component that fuelled the rapid growth in the internet through its ability to transmit and amplify large amounts of data. Payne also pioneered fibre lasers and led the teams that invented the single mode silica fibre laser and amplifier and broke the kilowatt barrier for the output of a fibre laser.
Since then he has made discoveries which have contributed to the growth of fibre lasers for use in manufacturing and defence. Payne is the current director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, one of the world’s largest research groups dedicated to photonics.
He also directs the Photonics Hyperhighway research project, aimed at making internet connections 100 times faster.
Royal Society.