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Division of Information and Communication Sciences

David Coutts
Department of Physics
Macquarie University NSW 2109
Australia 		Maquarie University
Email dcoutts @ ics.mq.edu.au
Position Associate Professor
Room No. E7A 201
Telephone +61-2-9850-8970
Fax +61-2-9850-8115

Profile

David Coutts (B.Sc. hons. Massey University 1987, Ph.D Macquarie University 1992) is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Lasers and Application in the Department of Physics, and member of the Optical Society of America and the Australian Optical Society. He is an intern member of the University's Research Policy Management Committee, Deputy Chair of the Univeristy's Research Partnerships Panel and the Physics Department Director of Research. He was previously a Macquarie University Research Fellow (1992 to 1994), then Postdoctoral Research Associate (1995-1999), and an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow (1999-2003) in the department of Atomic and Laser Physics, University of Oxford. David Coutts' research interests include laser device development, nonlinear frequency conversion and applications, particularly developing and using high repetition rate UV-visible-IR lasers. Laser systems developed include high beam quality pulsed metal vapour lasers (including frequency doubled systems), tunable cerium solid-state lasers, Ti:sapphire lasers, liquid and solid-dye lasers; applications include materials processing, laser micromachining, laser based high speed imaging and biophotonics. Recent work focuses on developing novel sources and techniques for high speed imaging, developing all-solid state cerium UV lasers, and their applications to biophotonics sensing.

David Coutts teaches specialist 3rd year units in Optoelectronics, Optical Physics and Atomic Physics and Honours level Nonlinear Optics. He has supervised six completed PhD students, and is currently supervisor/associate supervisor for a further eight PhD students.

Grants awarded

  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2006), "Multi-wavelength ultraviolet laser facility" DW Coutts JM Dawes, EM Goldys, Y He, BJ Orr, HM Pask, DJ Spence GE Town, MJ Withford, ($62,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2006), "Laser services technical officer", BJ Orr, DW Coutts, JM Dawes, A Fuerbach, EM Goldys, Y He, HM Pask, JA Piper, DJ Spence, GE Town, MJ Withford, ($77,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2006), "Ultrafast laser micro-processing facility", MJ Withford, A Fuerbach, GD Marshall, R Connally, JA Piper, ($80,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2005), "High frequency bandwidth oscilloscope", JM Dawes, DW Coutts, BJ Orr, HM Pask, DJ Spence, ($69,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2005), "Multiwavelength refractometer for optical characterisation of materials" G Town, A Try, DW Coutts, MJ Withford ($40,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2005), "Compact high performance nanosecond pulsed laser" M J Withford, GD Marshall, DJ Spence, HM Pask, RP Mildren, and DW Coutts, ($80,000)
  • ARC Discovery (2004-6), "Compact Low-Cost Tunable UV Lasers for Biosensing Applications" DW Coutts, ($270,000)
  • ARC Network Seed Funding (2004) "Adaptive Optics for Australian Astronomy, Medicine, Industry and Defence" I McMahon et al, ($20,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2004), "CCD Users Group - CCD Cameras", DW Coutts, MJ Withford and BJ Orr, ($25,000)
  • Macquarie University Research Development Grant, (2004), "Colour- Adding a New Dimension to Laser High Speed Imaging", DW Coutts, ($20,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2003), "VUV Lamps, Lasers and Spectroscopy Collective, VUV Spectrometer System", DM Kane, RP Mildren, DW Coutts, BJ Orr, RJ Carman, ($34,000)
  • ARC Research Infrastructure Block Grant, (2003), "Two micromachined membrane deformable mirrors MMDM" JM Dawes, DW Coutts MJ Withford, ($16,000)
  • EPSRC (UK) Advanced Fellowship, (1999-2003), "High Pulse Repetition Rate UV and Visible Lasers in Engineering", D. W. Coutts, ($532,000)
  • EPSRC (UK) Responsive Mode Grant, (2000-2003), "Engineering Applications of New Types of High Power UV Gold Vapour Lasers", D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, ($207,000)
  • EPSRC (UK) Responsive Mode Grant (2001-2003), "Collaboration on Materials Processing Applications of Kinetically Enhanced Copper and Gold Vapour Lasers", D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, ($37,000)
  • ARC International Research Exchange Award (2000-2002), "Development of high-power, high-pulse-rate visible and ultraviolet laser sources for precision laser microfabrication", DJW Brown, MJ Withford, CE Webb and DW Coutts, ($46,000)

Journal Publications

  1. D. W. Coutts, M. D. Ainsworth, and J. A. Piper, 'Sum frequency mixing of copper vapour laser output in KDP and B-BBO,' IEEE J. Quant. Electron., QE 25, pp. 1985-1987, 1989.
  2. D. W. Coutts, M. D. Ainsworth, and J. A. Piper, 'Efficient green/yellow conversion of copper vapour laser output,' Optics Communications 75, pp 302-306, 1990.
  3. D. W. Coutts, M. D. Ainsworth and J. A. Piper, 'Enhanced efficiency of UV second harmonic and sum frequency generation from copper vapour lasers,' IEEE J. Quant. Electron., QE 26, pp. 1555-1558, 1990.
  4. M. D. Ainsworth, D. J. W. Brown, D. W. Coutts and J. A. Piper. 'Investigation of practical high repetition rate copper vapour lasers with external heating,' Optical and Quantum Electronics 23 pp. S539-S548, 1991.
  5. D. W. Coutts, M. D. Ainsworth, and J. A. Piper, 'Observation of the temporal evolution of transverse coherence in copper vapour lasers,' Optics Communications, 87, pp. 245-248, 1992.
  6. D. W. Coutts and J. A. Piper. 'One watt average power by second harmonic and sum frequency generation from a single medium-scale copper vapour laser,' IEEE J. Quantum Electron., QE 28, pp. 1761-1764, 1992.
  7. D. W. Coutts, D. J. W. Brown and J. A. Piper. 'Measurement of divergence evolution of copper vapour laser output using a cylindrical imaging technique,' Applied Optics, 32, pp. 2058-2061, 1993.
  8. D. W. Coutts, 'Influence of off-axis unstable resonator alignment on copper vapour laser output divergence,' Optics Commun., 113, pp. 283-291, 1994.
  9. D. W. Coutts and D. J. W. Brown, 'Formation of output in copper vapour lasers,' Applied Optics, 34, pp. 1502-1512, 1995.
  10. D. W. Coutts, 'Time resolved beam divergence from a copper vapour laser with unstable resonator,' IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 31, pp. 330-341, 1995.
  11. M. J. Withford, D. J. W. Brown, D. W. Coutts and J. A. Piper, 'Increased efficiency of high beam quality extraction from a copper vapour laser with H2/Ne admixtures,' IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 31, pp. 898-902, 1995.
  12. D. W. Coutts 'Optimisation of line focusing geometry for efficient nonlinear frequency conversion of copper vapour lasers,' IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 31, pp. 2208-2214, 1995.
  13. D. W. Coutts, and D. J. W. Brown, 'Production of high average power uv by second harmonic and sum frequency generation from copper vapour lasers,' IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., 1, 768-778, 1995.
  14. W. J. Wadsworth, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'Damage free power scaling of copper vapour laser pumped Ti:sapphire lasers,' in OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics on Advanced Solid State Lasers. 1., pp. 104-108, 1996.
  15. D. Kapitan, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'Enhanced beam quality performance of 20W single unit copper vapour lasers,' IEEE J. Quantum Electron, 34, pp. 419-426, 1997.
  16. D. W. Coutts, W. J. Wadsworth, C. E. Webb, 'High average power blue generation from a copper vapour laser pumped titanium sapphire laser,' J. Modern Optics, 45, pp. 1185-1197, 1997.
  17. E. D. Young, D. W. Coutts and D. Kapitan, 'Uv laser ablation and irm-GCMS microanalysis of 18O/16O and 17O/16O with application to a calcium-aluminium-rich inclusion from the Allende meteorite,' Geochemica Cosmichemica Acta, 62, pp. 3161-3168, 1998.
  18. A. J. S. McGonigle, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'A 530 mW cerium LiCAF laser pumped by the sum frequency mixed output of a copper vapour laser,' Optics Letters 23, pp. 232-234, 1999.
  19. W. J. Wadsworth, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'Kilohertz pulse repetition frequency slab Ti:sapphire lasers with high average power (10 W),' Applied Optics, 38, pp. 6904-6911, 1999.
  20. A. J. S. McGonigle, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'A 380 mW 7 kHz cerium LiLuF laser pumped by the frequency doubled yellow output of a copper vapour laser,' IEEE J. Sel. Topic. Quantum Electron 6 pp. 1526-31, 1999
  21. A. J. S. McGonigle, S. Girard, D. W. Coutts and R. Moncorge, 'A 10 kHz continuously tunable Ce:LiLuF4 laser,' IEE Electronics Letters, 35, pp. 1640-1641, 1999.
  22. G. D. Marshall and D. W. Coutts, 'Repetition rate scaling up to 100 kHz of a small-scale (50W) kinetically enhanced copper vapor laser' IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quant. Electron. 6 pp 623-28, 2000.
  23. A. J. S. McGonigle, R. Moncorge and D. W. Coutts, 'Temperature-dependent polarization effects in Ce:LiLuF laser', Applied Optics, 40, pp. 4326-33, 2001
  24. A. J. S. McGonigle, D. W. Coutts, S. Girard and R. Moncorge, 'A 10 kHz Ce:LiSAF laser pumped by the sum-frequency-mixed output of a copper-vapour-laser', Optics Communications, 193, pp. 233-6, 2001.
  25. A. Costela, I Garcia-Moreno, R. Sastre, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'High repetition rate polymeric solid-state dye lasers pumped by a copper-vapour laser,' Applied Physics Letters, 79, pp. 452-4, 2001.
  26. A. J. S. McGonigle, A. J. Andrews, D. W. Coutts, G. P. Hogan, K. S. Johnson, J. D. Moorhouse and C. E. Webb, 'Compact 2.5W 10 kHz Nd:YLF pumped dye laser,' Applied Optics, 41 pp. 1714-1717. 2002.
  27. A. J. S. McGonigle and D. W. Coutts, 'A Ti:sapphire laser end-pumped by a fibre-coupled copper vapour laser,' Optics Communications, 209, pp. 217-221, 2002.
  28. D. Kapitan, D. W. Coutts, 'The dynamic properties of shock-waves formed during laser ablation at sub-atmospheric pressures,' Europhys. Lett., 57 pp. 2050211, 2002.
  29. D. W. Coutts, 'Double-pass copper vapor laser master-oscillator power-amplifier systems: generation of flat-top focused beams for fiber coupling and percussion drilling,' IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 38, pp. 1217-1224, 2002.
  30. K. M. Abedin, M. Alvarez, A. Costela, I. Garcia-Moreno, O. Garcia, R. Sastre, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, '10 kHz repetition rate solid-state dye laser pumped by a diode-pumped solid state laser' Optics Communications, 218, pp 359-363, 2003.
  31. J. S. McGonigle, A. J. Andrews, G. P. Hogan, D. W. Coutts and C. E. Webb, 'A compact frequency-doubled 10-kHz PRF copper vapour laser pumped dye laser,' Appl. Phys. B. 76, pp. 307-311, 2003.
  32. R. P. Mildren, G. D. Marshall, M. J. Withford, D. W. Coutts and J. A. Piper, 'Input-output power scaling of a compact (0.8 L) kinetically enhanced copper-vapor laser' IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 39, pp. 773-777, 2003.
  33. K. M. Abedin, D. W. Coutts, and C. E. Webb, 'Enhanced efficiency and pulse adjacency effects in high repetition rate laser machining,' Appl. Phys A. 78, pp 737-740, 2004.
  34. D. W. Coutts and A. J. S. McGonigle, 'Cerium doped fluoride lasers,' IEEE. J. Quantum Electron. 40, pp. 1430-1440, 2004.
  35. J. M. Fishburn, M. J. Withford, D. W. Coutts and J. A. Piper, 'Method for determination of the volume of material ejected as molten droplets during visible nanosecond ablation' Appl. Opt. 43, pp. 6473-6476, 2004.
  36. R. P. Mildren, G. D. Marshall and D. W. Coutts, "Anomalous discharge mode in a kinetically-enhanced copper vapor laser: Visualization by "hook" method'" 4th Triennial Special Issue of IEEE Trans. Plasma Scinec, "Images in Plasma Science", 33, pp 376-377, 2005.
  37. K. S. Johnson, H. M. Pask, M. J. Withford and D. W. Coutts "Efficient all-solid-state Ce:LiLuF laser source at 309 nm" Opt. Commun. 252, pp 132-137, 2005.
  38. J. M. Fishburn, M. J. Withford, D. W. Coutts, and J. A. Piper, "Study of the fluence dependent interplay between laser induced material removal mechanisms in metals: vaporization, melt displacement and melt ejection," Appl. Surface. Sci. 252, pp. 5182-5188, 2005.
  39. Jeffries and D. W. Coutts, "Asymmetric beam-shaping of a diode-bar laser for multipass-pumping of a thin-crystal laser" J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 22, pp. 2121-2128, 2005.
  40. J. M. Fishburn, M. J. Withford, D. W. Coutts, and J. A. Piper, "'Study of the interplay of vaporization, melt displacement and melt ejection mechanisms under multiple pulse irradiation" Applied Surface Science Accepted 24 Dec 2005.
  41. D. J. Spence, H. Liu and D. W. Coutts, "Low threshold miniature Ce:LiCAF lasers," Opt. Commun. 262, pp. 238-40, 2006.
  42. B. Jeffries and D. W. Coutts, "Three level operation of a diode-bar-pumped Yb:S-FAP laser," Accepted Optics Commun. 9 Feb 2006.

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