- Collaborate with highly skilled researchers in specialist areas of QT
- Help shape the research agenda and align fundamental research to your needs
- Raise awareness of your organisation with the next generation of quantum researchers
- Access a high calibre pool of industry-aware, quantum specialists
- Get to know the cohorts to see who might be the right fit for your organisation.
How to get involved
We welcome new industry partners to join those who have already committed to engagement with the Centre. Engagement can come in many forms including co-funding of studentships, short-term secondments and involvement in the Industry Forum.
If your company engages in quantum technology research or anticipates the need to recruit quantum specialists with broad skills, get in touch and see how you can benefit from engagement with the Centre. For information, queries or to find out how to propose a co-funded project, please get in touch via: partners@aqt.ac.uk
Case Study
Research in solid state lasers and non-linear optics in the Department of Physics led to the creation and growth of innovative laser companies Coherent Scotland Ltd and M Squared Lasers Ltd serving global scientific and industrial markets.
In 1992, the success of Strathclyde’s cold atom research using the in-house developed single frequency Ti:sapphire laser led to demand from other researchers for access to the laser technology. This was met by the setting up of a spin-out company, Microlase Optical Systems Ltd by Professor Ferguson and two former graduate students. A single frequency Ti:sapphire laser system, together with an external cavity frequency doubler, formed the core of the Microlase business and throughout the 1990s Microlase was able to build on the technology being developed in the Department of Physics.
Microlase was sold to Coherent Inc in late 1999 becoming Coherent Scotland Ltd. Further Strathclyde research contributed to the development of mulitphoton imaging as a tool for biological imaging, including the exploration of suitable laser sources and imaging configurations. To address this new market opportunity, Coherent Scotland Ltd, developed a new product, the Chameleon mode-locked Tisapphire source, which was launched in 2003. This laser system is an integral part of multiphoton imaging systems now very widely used as an imaging tool in the leading life sciences laboratories across the world.
In 2006, M Squared Lasers Ltd was established, to develop laser systems based on research at Strathclyde and elsewhere. M Squared Lasers produces a compact and automated version of the single frequency Ti-Sapphire laser. This is supplemented by several other diode pumped solid state laser and nonlinear optical systems much of which was researched in collaboration with Strathclyde. A further spin-out, Solus Technologies Ltd, a subsidiary of M Squared Lasers Ltd, is developing semiconductor disk laser products, an area also initially researched at Strathclyde.
In terms of product portfolio, the original Microlase Ti:sapphire laser (MBR) continues to be a commercial success and remains part of the Coherent Scotland Ltd product portfolio. An updated and automated version of the MBR laser has been developed by M Squared Lasers. It is estimated that between these companies well over 1000 of these systems have been sold, largely for research applications, both in universities and other research laboratory settings, including for high resolution spectroscopy and cold atom physics. Coherent Scotland Ltd continues to expand its Glasgow operation and the use of multiphoton imaging as a practical research tool by biological scientists and clinicians has been transformed by the Chameleon laserweith applications in biology, optogenetics and neuroscience, enabling clinical research into diseases of societal importance such as Alzheimers. More recent products developed by Coherent Scotland have enabled step-change applications in semiconductor wafer inspection and in materials processing.
M-Squared Lasers is one of the fastest growing technology companies in the UK serving a global marketplace including research, biophotonics, defence and security, remote sensing and metrology.