Dr Richard White

Biography/ Background

Richard was born and raised in Nelson, New Zealand.  He received his BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees in physics from the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 1995 and 1998, and began his PhD study at Otago in 1998.  Richard took leave from study in 2000 to lecture and work in the laser industry but returned to his PhD (after transferring to Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) and graduated in 2005.  During his PhD, he studied quasi-phase-matched nonlinear-optical devices as frequency converters for lasers.  Highlights of that research were the development of wavelength-tunable ultraviolet and blue sources based on frequency-doubled Ti:sapphire lasers and of a high-performance optical parametric oscillator for high-precision spectroscopy.

In 2005, Richard took a position at Industrial Research Ltd (Wellington, New Zealand), where he worked on the development of devices based on novel crystals and nonlinear-optical polymers for a wide range of applications, including radiation dosimetry and telecommunications.

In 2008, Richard moved to Adelaide and began work in the Centre of Expertise in Photonics (CoEP) and subsequently the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), where he is developing infrared sources and devices based on nonlinear-optical interactions in microstructured optical fibres.  His main interests are supercontinuum generation and four-wave optical parametric amplifiers and oscillators.

Richard has a few hobbies, including touch football, running, tramping (hiking), hunting and scuba diving.  He and his partner have a wee daughter.

Qualifications

Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Administration, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand (2007)

Electrical Service Technician A, Wellington Institute of Technology, Wellington, New Zealand (2006)

PhD in chemistry, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (2005)

MSc (Distinction) in physics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (1998)

BSc (Hons; first class) in physics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (1995)

Awards & Achievements

Richard was nominated by the NSW Branch of the Australian Institute of Physics for the Bragg Medal 2005 for the best PhD thesis in physics from an Australian university.

Research Interests

Infrared sources and devices based on nonlinear-optical interactions in microstructured optical fibres, including supercontinuum sources and four-wave optical parametric amplifiers and oscillators.

High-performance optical parametric oscillators for high-precision spectroscopy.

Publications

Journal Papers

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Control of frequency chirp in nanosecond-pulsed laser spectroscopy. 3. Spectrotemporal dynamics of an injection-seeded optical parametric oscillator,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 24(10), 2601–2609 (2007). [web]

Mitsuhiko Kono, Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “CHAPS: a new precision laser-spectroscopic technique,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 23(6), 1181–1189 (2006). [web]

Mitsuhiko Kono, Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “Heterodyne-assisted pulsed spectroscopy with a nearly Fourier-transform limited, injection-seeded optical parametric oscillator,” Opt. Lett. 30(24), 3413–3415 (2005). [web]

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and K. G. H. Baldwin, “Control of frequency chirp in nanosecond-pulsed laser spectroscopy. 2. A long-pulse optical parametric oscillator for narrow optical bandwidth,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 21(9), 1586–1594 (2004). [web]

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and K. G. H. Baldwin, “Control of frequency chirp in nanosecond-pulsed laser spectroscopy. 1. Optical-heterodyne chirp analysis techniques,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 21(9), 1577–1585 (2004). [web]

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and K. G. H. Baldwin, “Transition from single-mode to multimode operation of an injection-seeded pulsed optical parametric oscillator,” Opt. Express 12(23), 5655–5660 (2004). [web]

R. T. White, I. T. McKinnie, S. D. Butterworth, G. W. Baxter, D. M. Warrington, P. G. R. Smith, G. W. Ross, and D. C. Hanna, “Tunable single-frequency ultraviolet generation from a continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser with an intracavity PPLN frequency doubler,” Appl. Phys. B 77(6, 7), 547–550 (2003). [web]

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and K. G. H. Baldwin, “Pulsed injection-seeded optical parametric oscillator with low frequency chirp for high-resolution spectroscopy,” Opt. Lett. 28(14), 1248–1250 (2003). [web]

Yabai He, Pu Wang, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “Spectroscopic applications of optical parametric oscillators,” Opt. Photonics News 13(5), 56–60, 76 (2002). [web]

R. T. White, W. P. Bowen, I. T. McKinnie, and W. J. Wadsworth, “Efficient tunable ultraviolet generation in periodically poled lithium niobate,” Electron. Lett. 35(8), 642–643 (1999). [web]

Iain T. McKinnie, Jan C. Diettrich, Richard T. White, and Donald M. Warrington, “Dynamics of gain-switched Cr:YAG lasers,” in Solid-State Lasers VII (Richard Scheps, editor), Proc. SPIE, volume 3265, pp. 295–305 (1998). [web]

Richard T. White and Iain T. McKinnie, “Pump-probe switching in gain-switched lasers,” Opt. Express 3(8), 298–304 (1998). [web]

Iain T. McKinnie, Lawrence A. W. Gloster, Terry A. King, and Richard T. White, “Excitation of a Cr:forsterite laser to the ³T₁ band,” Appl. Opt. 36(21), 4985–4988 (1997). [web]

 

Conference Presentations

R. T. White, W. Q. Zhang, S. Afshar V., and T. M. Monro, “Mid-IR sources based on four-wave mixing in microstructured optical fibres,” in Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology (ACOFT 2009), poster 27 (2009).

W. Q. Zhang, J. E. Sharping, R. T. White, T. M. Monro, and S. Afshar V., “Towards microstructured-fibre-based optical parametric oscillators for ultra-short-pulse sources in the near-infrared,” in Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology (ACOFT 2009), poster 33 (2009).

K. G. H. Baldwin, Y. He, M. Kono, B. J. Orr, and R. T. White, “A high-performance coherent pulsed spectroscopic light source with low chirp and optical bandwidth near the Fourier-transform limit,” in Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy (ACOLS 2009), presentation 417 (2009).

Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “Low-chirp Ti:sapphire amplification of OPO pulses near the Fourier transform limit,” in Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO–PR 2009), poster (2009).

Brian J. Orr, Yabai He, Richard T. White, Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, and Mitsuhiko Kono, “High-performance amplification of coherent ∼25-ns light pulses from a tunable source operating at ∼840 nm with bandwidth near the Fourier limit,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Europe (CLEO/Europe 2009) and European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC 2009), paper CA.P.2 TUE (2009).

E. P. Schartner, R. T. White, S. C. Warren-Smith, and Monro T. M., “Practical sensitive fluorescence sensing with microstructured fibres,” in 20th International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS-20), poster OF101-206 (2009).

K. G. H. Baldwin, Yabai He, Mitsuhiko Kono, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “A chirp-controlled, nanosecond-pulsed tunable optical parametric oscillator and Ti:sapphire amplifier system: Progress and prospects for high-resolution spectroscopy,” in International Commission for Optics Congress (ICO-21) (2008).

Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Richard T. White, Yabai He, and Brian J. Orr, “A coherent tunable source of high-power nanosecond pulses at ∼840 nm, near the Fourier limit of optical bandwidth,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2008), 2008 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper CTuY5 (2008).

Julian Williams and Richard White, “Business expenditure on research and development in New Zealand – future potential and future industries,” in Econometric Society Australasian Meeting / Annual Conference ofthe New Zealand Association of Economists (ESAM/NZAE 2008), paper 56.1 (2008).

K. G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “Coherent heterodyne-assisted pulsed spectroscopy (CHAPS),” in International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy (ICOLS 2007), poster 3 (2007).

K. G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Richard T. White, Yabai He, and Brian J. Orr, “Control of frequency chirp in a PPKTP optical parametric oscillator with near Fourier-limited bandwidth,” in Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO–PR 2007), invited paper WE2-1 (2007).

Andrew Kay, Andrew Beaudin, Sanjay Sharma, Richard White, and Stephen Tauwhare, “Organic nonlinear optical materials: Synthesis and properties,” in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology 3 Conference (AMN-3), paper 0160 (2007).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, K. G. H. Baldwin, and Mitsuhiko Kono, “Spectrotemporal dynamics of a ns-pulsed, injection-seeded optical parametric oscillator,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Europe (CLEO/Europe 2007) and International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC 2007), paper CD-2-WED (2007).

Richard T. White, Grant V. M. Williams, Andy Edgar, Christian Dotzler, Sebastiampillai Raymond, Cara Dunford, S. Schweizer, B. Henke, and M. Spaeth, “Optically rewritable diffraction gratings in RbCdF3:Mn²⁺ crystals,” in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology 3 Conference (AMN-3), paper 0103 (2007).

Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “CHAPS – Coherent Heterodyne-Assisted Pulsed Spectroscopy,” in Frontiers in Optics (2006).

Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “Coherent heterodyne-assisted pulsed spectroscopy (CHAPS): A new technique for precision measurement,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2006), 2006 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper CMO4 (2006).

Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Mitsuhiko Kono, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “A new precision pulsed laser technique for atomic physics: Coherent Heterodyne-Assisted Pulsed laser Spectroscopy (CHAPS),” in International Conference on Atomic Physics (2006).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, and Mitsuhiko Kono, “Numerical simulation of spectral purity and dynamics in an injection-seeded pulsed optical parametric oscillator,” in 17th National Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics (2006).

K. G. H. Baldwin, M. Kono, Y. He, R. T. White, and B. J. Orr, “A near Fourier-transform limited optical parametric oscillator/amplifier system as a pulsed source for high resolution spectroscopy,” in 18th Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS 2005), paper WN4 (2005).

K. G. H. Baldwin, M. Kono, B. J. Orr, Y. He, and R. T. White, “High-resolution pulsed spectroscopic source using an injection-seeded optical parametric oscillator/amplifier system,” in International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC 2005) and Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO–PR 2005), paper QWF1-5 (2005).

Mitsuhiko Kono, Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, Yabai He, Richard T. White, and Brian J. Orr, “Coherent heterodyne-assisted pulsed spectroscopy (CHAPS),” in Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy (ACOLS 2005), paper ThA3 (2005).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Injection-seeded pulsed optical parametric oscillator: bandwidth control and dynamical processes,” in Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy (ACOLS 2005), paper WeA3 (2005).

Richard T. White, Grant V. M. Williams, Cara Dunford, S. Schweizer, B. Henke, and J. M. Spaeth, “Optically rewritable diffraction gratings in RbCdF3:Mn²⁺ crystals,” in Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy (ACOLS 2005), paper ThC4 (2005).

Brian J. Orr, Yabai He, Richard T. White, Mitsuhiko Kono, and K. G. H. Baldwin, “Spectroscopic characterization of narrowband output from injection-seeded pulsed optical parametric oscillators,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Europe (CLEO/Europe 2005) and European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC 2005), paper CD4-3-MON (2005).

R. T. White, Y. He, B. J. Orr, M. Kono, and K. G. H. Baldwin, “Ultra-narrowband, nanosecond-pulsed OPO–OPA spectroscopic system,” in 16th National Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics, paper AOSPWE12 (2005).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Chirp characterization of a high-resolution, low-chirp, ns-pulsed optical parametric oscillator – amplifier system,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2004), 2004 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), poster CThT31 (2004).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Chirp control in a pulsed, tunable PPKTP OPO/OPA system for high-resolution laser spectroscopy,” in Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy (ACOLS 2003), poster presentation (2003).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Controlling frequency chirp in a ns-pulsed, single-longitudinal-mode, injection-seeded PPKTP optical parametric oscillator,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2003), 2003 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper CTuN6 (2003).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Frequency chirp in a ns-pulsed, single-longitudinal-mode, injection-seeded PPKTP optical parametric oscillator,” in Advanced Solid-State Photonics (ASSP 2003), 2003 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC) (2003).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “Frequency chirp in a pulsed, single-longitudinal-mode, injection-seeded optical parametric oscillator,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe – EQEC 2003), poster EJ4W (2003).

Richard T. White, Yabai He, Brian J. Orr, Mitsuhiko Kono, and Kenneth G. H. Baldwin, “A new pulsed, tunable source for high-resolution laser spectroscopy: a PPKTP OPO with controlled chirp,” in Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy (ICOLS 2003) (P. Hannaford, A. Sidorov, H. Bachor, and K. Baldwin, editors), World Scientific, Singapore (2003).

Richard T. White, Iain T. McKinnie, Stuart D. Butterworth, Don M. Warrington, Peter G. R. Smith, Graeme W. Ross, and David C. Hanna, “Periodically poled lithium niobate for applications at short wavelengths,” in Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy (ACOLS 2001), paper T(b)1, p. 53 (2001).

Richard T. White, Iain T. McKinnie, Stuart D. Butterworth, Glenn W. Baxter, Don M. Warrington, Peter G. R. Smith, Graeme W. Ross, and David C. Hanna, “Tunable efficient ultraviolet generation in periodically poled lithium niobate,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO/Europe 2000), 2000 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper CThB2, p. 282 (2000).

Richard T. White, Warwick P. Bowen, Iain T. McKinnie, and William J. Wadsworth, “Efficient tunable ultraviolet generation in periodically poled lithium niobate,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 1999), 1999 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Societyof America, Washington, DC), paper CTuB3, pp. 61–62 (1999).

J. C. Diettrich, R. T. White, I. T. McKinnie, and D. M. Warrington, “Determination of thermal lensing in pulsed Cr:YAG lasers,” in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO/Europe 1998), 1998 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper CWD3 (1998).

R. T. White, I. T. McKinnie, and N. L. Moise, “Pump-probe switching in Cr:forsterite lasers,” in Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference (QELS 1997), 1997 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper QTHC5, pp. 147–148 (1997).

Richard T. White, Iain T. McKinnie, and Norton L. Moise, “Novel dynamic behaviour in Cr:forsterite lasers,” in Physics in Education and Society (National Physics Conference), New Zealand Institute of Physics, paper LOB3 (1997).

R. T. White, I. T. McKinnie, and N. L. Moise, “Dynamics of pulsed Cr⁴⁺ laser systems,” in XX International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC 1996), 1996 OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC), paper TUJ2, pp. 50–51 (1996).

 

Book Chapters

Brian J. Orr, Yabai He, and Richard T. White, “Spectroscopic applications of tunable optical parametric oscillators,” in Tunable Laser Applications (F. J. Duarte, editor), CRC Press, New York, chapter 2, 2nd edition (2008). [web]

Professional Associations

Richard is a member of the Australian Optical Society and an occasional member of the Optical Society of America.

Entry last updated: Tuesday, 24 Nov 2009