Our Technology
There is an urgent need for improved transceiver technologies both in the datacentre environment and for the fronthaul in 5G networks. In the datacentre the requirement for low cost, low power, small form factor and high performance photonics to serve ever increasing data needs has already necessitated the deployment of advanced Silicon Photonics technologies. This has enabled many of the optical components required in transceivers to be integrated into silicon.
Silicon Photonics 1.0
However, current silicon photonics is missing a key ingredient – light generation and amplification. Laser sources and optical amplifiers are fabricated in different compound semiconductor material systems and then co-packaged with the silicon photonics. Integrated silicon-based lasers and amplifiers are therefore a holy grail in the industry with the promise of lower fabrication costs combined with significant reduction in power requirement, increases in efficiency and the realisation of complex photonic systems on chip.
Silicon Photonics 2.0
Chromosol, a spinout from QMUL, has developed a technology based on a 2-component optical gain and sensitizer system which can be co-evaporated on top of a silicon based waveguide finally delivering on the promise of photonic integration – Silicon Photonics 2.0. The pre-print of the original Nature Materials describes this unique system can be downloaded here.
Our People
Paul May
Chairman
Paul has worked at board level with start-ups in the photonics, semiconductor and display sectors for over 25 years, and has guided many of these from early stage to successful exits. He first started working on silicon photonics at IBM’s Yorktown Heights in the late 1980’s!
Prof William Gillin
Director and CTO
Prof Gillin is a Professor of Physics at Queen Mary University of London who works primarily on the optical properties of materials. He has worked extensively on both traditional semiconductors and more recently on organic semiconductors which are the technology behind OLED displays. He pioneered work on integrating infrared emitting lanthanide ions into organic devices and it was this research that led to the technology utilised by Chromosol.
Dr Huanqing Ye
Senior Research Scientist
Dr Huanqing Ye did his PhD in Prof Gillin’s group on the optical properties of organic lanthanide materials. Following his PhD he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at NTU in Singapore before returning to London to work for Chromosol Ltd.
Lee Thornton
Director for New Business at IP Group
Lee works at the coal-face of technology commercialisation by sourcing and developing commercialisable intellectual property across the physical sciences from leading UK universities through the formation, financing and management of early stage spin-out companies.
Jelena Gorbaciova
Research Scientist
Demonstrating an affinity with experimental physics, Jelena undertook her PhD with Professor William Gillin where she focussed on improving optical properties in organic lanthanide materials. She joined Chromosol as Research Scientist at the end of her degree where her expertise in these materials will be critical in developing Chromosol’s platform technology.
Matthew Delaney
Photonics Engineer
Matthew has just finished a PhD in silicon photonics at the Optoelectronics Research Centre in Southampton. He developed an on-chip optical router based on a new family of phase change materials, before moving to Chromosol as Photonics Engineer where his expertise in designing and characterising silicon photonic chips will be in great demand.
Claire Burgess
Material Scientist
Claire did her PhD on Atomic Layer Deposition of metal oxides in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London. Following her time at Imperial, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the field of perovskite solar cells at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Her expertise in ALD will be essential in her Material Scientist role for improving the lifetime of Chromosol’s organic-based gain medium.
Zach Parr
Organic Chemist
Zach completed his PhD at Queen Mary University London in 2020, where his research centred around the development of novel organic materials for bioelectronics in the group of Dr Christian Nielsen. After a short post-doc, Zach joined Chromosol in July 2021. His expertise in organic synthesis combined with organic electronics is critical in our development of new more efficient amplifier systems.
Jim Shaikh
Commercialisation Manager at QMUL
Jim has over 18 years’ experience in early stage venture development having established and exited three businesses. His last business was a consumer products company in which he developed the core technology, raised investment and established a presence in 20 international markets supported by an international supply chain. He has a background in engineering having worked for BMW/Rover and in Engineering Consultancy and is now a Senior Commercialisation Manager at Queen Mary Innovation Ltd.
Career Opportunities
No vacancies currently available.
Contact Us
Email: paul.may@chromosol.com | Chromosol Ltd, The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London, United Kingdom, EC4N 8A