Roel Baets - InSpectra

Onderstaande beschrijving is in het Engels:

MIRASPEC Roel Baets

Roel Baets is full professor at Ghent University (UGent). He is also associated with IMEC. He has management responsibilities within the Photonics Research Group of UGent, the Center for Nano- and Biophotonics (NB Photonics) of UGent, the international Erasmus Mundus MSc program in Photonics and the joint UGent-IMEC research program on silicon photonics.

Roel Baets received an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Ghent University in 1980 and a second MSc degree from Stanford University in 1981. He received a PhD degree from Ghent University in 1984. From 1984 till 1989 he held a postdoctoral position at IMEC (with detachment to Ghent University). Since 1989 he has been a professor in the Engineering Faculty of UGent where he founded the Photonics Research Group. From 1990 till 1994 he has also been a part-time professor at the Technical University of Delft and from 2004 till 2008 at the Technical University of Eindhoven.

Roel Baets has mainly worked in the field of integrated photonic components. He has made contributions to research on semiconductor laser diodes, guided wave and grating devices and to the design and fabrication of photonic ICs, both in III-V semiconductors and in silicon. As part of a team of 6 professors he leads the Photonics Research Group at UGent. With about 60 researchers this group is involved in numerous national and international research programs. The silicon photonics activities of the group are part of a joint research initiative with IMEC. Roel Baets is also director of the multidisciplinary Center for Nano- and Biophotonics (NB Photonics) at UGent, founded in 2010.

Roel Baets was co-founder of the interuniversity UGent-VUB MSc programme in Photonics and of the international Erasmus Mundus MSc programme in Photonics, of which he chairs the Board.

Roel Baets is a grant holder of the Methusalem programme of the Flemish government and of the European Research Council (ERC). He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Contact: roel.baets@ugent.be

Publications: http://www.photonics.intec.ugent.be/contact/people.asp?ID=1

Silicon-photonics-based laser spectroscopy platform: towards a paradigm shift in environmental monitoring and health care

The Principal Investigator and his team will open up new horizons in the field of laser spectroscopy through basic research on silicon-photonics-based Spectroscopic Systems-On-Chip (SpecSOC). The key question being addressed is: how can the powerful concepts of high-index-contrast nanophotonics be combined with the extreme accuracy of silicon technology and with the performance of silicon/III-V integration in order to create system-on-chip functionalities for advanced (bio-)spectroscopy.
We will first focus research on integrated lasers or Laser Systems-on-Chip (LaSOC) capable of providing very wide wavelength tuning in the infrared, mid-infrared or visible. These lasers will have an unprecedented combination of properties. They will differ from existing semiconductor lasers in the sense that they combine the best of III-V semiconductor technology and silicon technology in unique cavity structures exploiting high index contrast in three dimensions.
In the second phase we will shift the focus from laser-oriented novelty to spectroscopy-oriented novelty and investigate SpecSOC’s with an unprecedented system performance that matches the requirements of mainstream real-life spectroscopy. We will explore coherent optical detection techniques for sensitivity enhancement, microporous coatings for on-chip gas sensing and implant-oriented tissue spectroscopy.
Our research will lead to a paradigm shift in laser spectroscopy, in the sense that it will turn an advanced spectroscopy system into a small form-factor commodity system. This will have an enormous impact on applications such as point-of-care medical diagnosis and implants and the monitoring of air, water and food quality. Furthermore the on-chip spectroscopy systems will be highly valuable for fundamental research.