Kevin Shortiss

Together with sponsor Catalyst Analog Devices, Tyndall celebrates the winners and finalists of the 2019 Postgraduate Publication of the Year .

Dr. Fatima Gunning, Senior Staff Researcher & Acting Head of Graduate Studies at Tyndall, praised the entries, saying: "This was an exceptionally competitive year with outstanding articles and publications in a cross-section of high-impact journals showcasing Tyndall’s research breadth and excellence."

Mike Morrissey, Technology Manager, Analog Devices echoed this:

“The long-term and strategic partnership between Analog Devices and Tyndall provides continuity of innovative research capability as well as access to a diverse and world-class talent pipeline. We are delighted to sponsor the Postgraduate Publication of the Year as it exemplifies the excellent deep-tech research Tyndall is renowned for and is aligned with core technologies of mutual interest for communications, energy, agri-tech and advanced manufacturing”

To help inspire other postgraduate students, both in Tyndall and those around the globe, we decided to profile this generation's future research leaders.

Kevin Shortiss

Finalist

What encouraged you to submit your application to Postgraduate Publication of the Year?
The work was the result of months of learning, and ultimately I was happy with the outcome. It’s well worth taking any opportunity you can to share your research, and the best publication competition is a good opportunity to do so.
What inspired you to choose the subject of your paper?
Initially, I noticed something strange in an experiment that I couldn’t explain. After searching the literature for an explanation, I became confident that what I’d found was relatively unknown in the community. After discussing my findings with the laser dynamics group in UCC, it was clear that my results could be of great interest to the laser dynamics community. A collaboration then started, and a theoretical model was formulated which matched the experiment very nicely.
What’s your paper about and how did you prepare for it? What role did research excellence play in your approach?
In short, the paper’s topic is focused on optical comb injection. Optical injection is a process where external light is shone into a laser. The paper is about two new types of frequency locking which can occur when an optical comb is injected into a laser. The paper explains in detail the mechanism behind both types of locking. We present both experimental and theoretical results, and demonstrate very good agreement between theory and experiment. Not only are the new locked states stable, but they can also be used to tune the frequency spacing in the optical comb.
The selection for Postgraduate Publication of the Year is extremely competitive. What is your advice for those aspiring for nomination next year?
If you are happy with the work you have completed, then you won’t regret entering the paper of the year competition. My advice to everyone is to take the opportunity to share your hard work!
What is the single most significant support Tyndall has been able to offer you in achieving your research goals?
The devices I used in the experimental half of the work were designed and fabricated here in Tyndall. I’m fortunate the turn-around times we are able to achieve in the fab are significantly faster than in commercial foundries. It meant that I had significantly more devices available to test, and I had spares whenever I did damage to a device during testing.

Research Publication Link

Harmonic frequency locking and tuning of comb frequency spacing through optical injection”, Kevin Shortiss, Benjamin Lingnau, Fabien Dubois, Bryan Kelleher, and Frank H. Peters, Optics Express, Vol. 27, No. 25, 36976 (2019)