Juna Sathian

Dr Juna Sathian is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, Physics & Electrical Engineering, and joined Northumbria University in July 2019. She is the Programme Leader for Physics and the Group Leader of the Quantum and Molecular Photonics research group. Her research area covers applied optics and the development of new technology. Her current research directions are focused on laser technology/ alexandrite ring lasers, room-temperature maser technology/diamond NV-colour centre characterisation, luminescent concentrator light technology for high brightness applications/ brightness enhanced solid-state light sources and optical spectroscopy.

Dr Sathian received her PhD in Nonlinear Optics and Laser Physics from Queensland University of Technology, Australia in Sep 2013. Her thesis entitled “Investigation of amplitude modulation contamination in electro-optic modulators”, was solving one of the serious problems of electro-optic modulator devices, a known issue in the LIGO gravitational wave detector system. She joined Imperial College London, Department of Materials as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2014 where she was a key researcher and co-developer of world’s first room-temperature continuous wave maser (in diamond), which has been patented and published in Nature. This also involved quantifying and characterising Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond in collaboration with the Department of Physics, University of Warwick.

During this time she worked on a high brightness solid-state light source (LED-pumped luminescent concentrator); designed, built and written one of the most definitive papers on these devices and also holds a patent on this device. This solid-state light technology bridges the gap between high cost, very elaborate laser devices and lower cost low brightness light sources (e.g. lamps, direct LED), and should play an important technological role as next generation low cost, high brightness light sources in a range of future scientific, medical and industrial applications. She also worked at the Department of Physics, Imperial College London on a project funded by Innovate-UK. The project developed novel precision wavelength-tunable diode-pumped Alexandrite laser technology in collaboration with M Squared Lasers, a premier scientific UK laser company.

She is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She is an Honorary Lecturer at Imperial College London and currently a research collaborator to the Maser Group at the Department of Materials and Photonics Group at the Department of Physics.