World-Class Research
BRIGHT SPARKS KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
A system that could help keep the UK’s lights on and save the energy industry millions has been devised by a group of Heriot-Watt PhD students. Studying a range of engineering specialties, the group of students are all based in the Centre for Doctoral Training in Embedded Intelligence. Their work is being supported by a £200,000 knowledge transfer project funded by Siemens and Innovate UK.
SHEDDING NEW LIGHT
Researchers from Heriot-Watt and the University of Glasgow have made an exciting discovery that pushes the boundaries of what we know and can do with light. Confounding a cornerstone of modern physics – that the speed of light in free space is constant – the researchers have for the first time, successfully slowed particles of light, known as photons, as they travel through free space.
The speed of light is a universal constant and plays a central role in our understanding of the Universe and Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well as in technological applications such as time-of-flight measurements. While scientists have long known that the speed of light can be slowed slightly as it travels through materials such as water or glass, what the joint team have discovered is that the application of a mask to an optical beam gives the photons a spatial structure that reduces their speed.
Professor Daniele Faccio, from Heriot- Watt’s Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences and part of the joint team which made the discovery, commented: “Our work is unpicking fundamental understanding about light and that its speed is a universal constant. We’ve discovered that this speed is the true speed of light only for plane waves – that is waves which are perfectly flat. In everyday situations however, we interact with light that is not a plane wave but has some kind of structure on it. The presence of this structure forces the light to move more slowly. The results give us a new way to think about the properties of light. We also expect that the effect will be applicable to any wave theory, so a similar slowing could well be created in sound waves, for example.”
Dr Faccio received the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2015 for his work at the forefront of quantum photonics in the UK
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The students investigated novel ways of monitoring and maintaining power network infrastructures around the world, looking at systems which have either exceeded or are nearing the end of their useful life but which are too expensive to replace wholesale. Their aim was to find a way to pinpoint, quickly and accurately, where problems may be developing so that a solution could be found before a major breakdown of the power system. Guided by Siemens experts, the students designed, built and tested a sensor which can detect partial discharge – small electrical sparks that occur within the insulation of high voltage electrical systems – which are often the first sign of a potentially major problem.
Associate Professor David Flynn, of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, commented: “This is a terrific example of the way a Centre for Doctoral Training can work, bringing together postgraduate students from a range of engineering specialties and allowing them the time, space and support to innovate. They tested their theory using the University’s simulation systems and produced a prototype which was tested by Siemens and proved to work. It’s now with Siemens to finalise commercialisation and hopefully offer the industry a new, quick and practical system to monitor and support energy infrastructure.”
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