About
Prof D. N. Payne is an internationally distinguished research pioneer in photonics, having been in the field for over 50 years. Optical fibre technology is one of the greatest scientific successes of the last three decades and Payne’s contributions are acknowledged as seminal in many areas. Optical fibres underpin the internet, provide new laser capability and environmental sensing, and drive growth to the benefit of all nations.
Payne’s work spans many diverse areas of photonics, from telecommunications and optical sensors to nanophotonics and optical materials. As others have noted, with his colleagues he has made many of the key technical achievements in almost every area of optical fibre technologies and his work has had a direct impact on worldwide telecommunications, as well as nearly all fields of optical R&D. As a result, he is the most highly honoured UK scientist in photonics.
David’s pioneering work in fibre fabrication in the 70’s resulted in almost all the special fibres in use today. He led the team that in 1985 first announced the silica fibre laser and the Erbium-Doped Optical Amplifier (EDFA), the device that fuelled an explosive growth in the internet through its ability to transmit and amplify vast amounts of data. The EDFA is widely regarded as being one of the foremost and most significant developments in modern telecommunications.
David is widely regarded as a charismatic and influential speaker, with extensive international experience. He is known throughout the world and is much in demand as a Plenary Speaker for his insight in a diverse range of scientific topics.
He has published over 650 Conference and Journal papers and been awarded the top American, European and Japanese prizes in photonics, a rare achievement.
As well as the UK Rank Prize for Optics and the prestigious US Tyndall Award, he is a Franklin Laureate (USA), an Eduard Rhein Laureate (Europe) and a Millennium Prize Laureate. He is also an original member of the Highly Cited Researchers (USA) where he is honoured as one of the most referenced, influential researchers in the field and a Thomson REUTERS Citation Laureate.
In 2013, he was Knighted for services to photonics in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours and in 2018 with his colleagues won the Queen's Anniversary Prize that celebrates excellence, innovation and public benefit in work carried out by UK universities.
Research
Research interests
- Many and varied across photonics, particularly in optical fibre design and fabrication, optical materials, optical sensing, and high-power fibre lasers.
Current research
His current main research interest is high-power fibre lasers. With US funding, he led the team that to international acclaim broke the kilowatt barrier for fibre laser output and now holds many other fibre laser performance records. The fibre laser has revolutionised industrial processing and scientific applications and has seen rapid growth for application in manufacturing.
Payne has made numerous leading contributions to these diverse fields and is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the key components.
Other examples of the impact of Payne’s work are
- spun fibres for control of dispersion, now extensively used in undersea fibre cables,
- the Er/Yb cladding-pumped fibre amplifier used for cable television distribution,
- the ‘Bow-Tie’ polarization-maintaining fibre used in many aircraft navigation gyroscopes,
- the fibre preform analyser employed throughout modern fibre factories.
He is also credited with pointing out the bandwidth advantage of the 1.3µm wavelength window.
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
David is passionate about motivating and inspiring young students to consider science and engineering as a career.
As a member of “Speakers for Schools”, he visits High Schools across the UK giving well-regarded talks on science and its translation to wealth and solutions to societal problems, often accompanied by a laser light show demonstration by PhD students from the ORC.
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Prof Payne is
- a Fellow of the Royal Society,
- the Royal Academy of Engineering,
- the Indian Academy of Engineering,
- the Russian, Indian and Norwegian Academy of Sciences,
- the IET (UK), the IoP (UK) and the Optical Society of America.
Among many prizes, he has been awarded
- the Mountbatten Medal of the IEE (2001),
- the Kelvin Medal of the eight major engineering institutions for distinction in the application of science to engineering (2004),
- the IEEE Photonics Award (2007),
- the Marconi Prize (2008) and
- the IEEE James Clerk Maxwell Award (2014).
With Vint Cerf, Emmanuel Desurvire, Tim Berners Lee and Bob Kahn, he was the recipient of the 2022 VinFutures Grand Prize, the world’s largest technology award.
In addition to his Academic achievements, Payne is a leading entrepreneur. Unusually, David combines world-leading science with commercial activities and has been the driving force behind a cluster of 10 spinout companies in the surrounding area, creating wealth and employment.
Of these, the three with which he has been most closely involved have been acquired by the leading companies, Schlumberger, Cisco and Trumpf GmbH.
In recognition, he has won the UK Academic Enterprise Award for establishing York Technology, followed by the Queens Award for Industry (1986).
In 2005 he and colleagues in SPI were finalists for the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, the UK's longest-running and most prestigious national prize for engineering innovation.
An award of which he is particularly proud since it reflects his dual role in academia and industry is the AILU (Association of Laser Users) Award (2010). The Award recognises the major contribution that David has made in the development of industrial laser materials processing in the UK, both in his inventions in the field of fibre lasers and also for his role in the establishment of SPI Lasers in 2000 to exploit the technology developed by the ORC.
In the international community, the ORC is regarded as being in the top few photonics Institutes worldwide, having an alumni of 800 members in key positions in many international companies. As Director for 28 years, David was until recently responsible for 190 Staff and 135 PhD students. The PhD student cohort is one of the largest and most active in the world and has twice been voted best student Chapter worldwide by the Optical Society of America. He also founded and co-directs a Dual Centre of similar size in Singapore – The Photonics Institute.