Associate Professor Martin O'Connor
Grant-Funded Researcher (D)
School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
College of Science
Associate Professor Martin O'Connor is the Defence Technologies Theme Leader at the Institute of Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS). He has 25 years R&D experience in lasers, optics and nonlinear optics across academic, government and industry settings. At the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Martin designed and developed solid-state lasers for laser radar and active imaging applications. He was awarded the George Murray Research Fellowship (University of Adelaide) and spent 6 years at the Optoelectronic Research Centre (Southampton, UK) where his interests combined the power scaling of ultrashort fibre laser amplifiers and the broad-tunability of quasi-phase matched nonlinear processes. Martin’s most recent experience was 11 years at BAE Systems Australia as Team Leader of the Electro-optic Engineering group. In this role, he provided technical and team leadership for the design, prototyping and manufacture of laser and optical systems that were deployed on naval and air platforms as well as thermal imaging systems for naval and land customers. Currently, Martin is coordinating the commercialisation of technology at the University of Adelaide such as the Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillator as well as building research activities in Optical Sensors for small satellites and infrared laser and imaging systems.
Research Interests:
- Ultra-stable microwave and optical frequency references ("The Sapphire Clock")
- RF photonics links
- Optical Sensors for Small Satellites: Telescopes, Comms and Hyperspectral Imagers
- Optical frequency conversion
- Infrared imaging exploiting deep learning algorithms.
- Infrared lasers and imaging sensors
- Interest is Quantum-enhanced Imaging
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 - ongoing | Associate Professor | University of Adelaide |
| 2005 - 2016 | Team Leader, Electro-Optic Engineering (Principal EO Engineer) | BAE Systems Australia |
| 2004 - 2005 | Electro-Optics Consultant | Stratophase (University of Southampton start-up) |
| 2000 - 2005 | Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow | University of Southampton |
| 1997 - 2000 | Research Scientist | Defence Science and Technology Organisation |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Award | Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia | Australian Museum/DSTG | Australia | 10000 |
| 2003 | Award | Royal Society Travel Grant | - | - | - |
| 2000 | Fellowship | George Murray Research Fellowship, University of Adelaide | - | - | - |
| 1992 | Scholarship | Australian Postgraduate Research Award | - | - | - |
| 1991 | Award | David Sutton Award for Most Outstanding (Dux) Honours Research, Physics Department, The University of Adelaide | - | - | - |
| 1990 | Scholarship | Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO) Scholarship | - | - | - |
| 1989 | Scholarship | Vacation Scholarship, Physics Department, University of Adelaide | - | - | - |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | University of Adelaide | Australia | Ph.D. by research in Lasers and Nonlinear Optics |
| 1995 | University of South Australia | Australia | Graduate Diploma in Business Management |
| 1991 | University of Adelaide | Australia | Bachelor of Science (with 1st Class Honours) in Experimental and Theoretical Physics |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2005 | Ming, L., Gawith, C. B. E., Gallo, K., O'Connor, M. V., Emmerson, G. D., & Smith, P. G. R. (2005). High conversion efficiency single-pass second harmonic generation in a zinc-diffused periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide. Optics Express, 13(13), 4862-4868. Scopus37 |
| 2005 | Naz, N. A., Hung, H. S. S., O’connor, M. V., Hanna, D. C., & Shepherd, D. P. (2005). Adaptively shaped mid-infrared pulses from a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator. Optics Express, 13(21), 8400-8405. Scopus14 |
| 2004 | O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2004). Use of a birefringent filter for tuning a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator. Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics, 79(1), 15-23. Scopus7 |
| 2003 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2003). Synchronously pumped CdSe optical parametric oscillator in the 9-10 μm region. Optics Letters, 28(20), 1957-1959. Scopus49 Europe PMC6 |
| 2002 | O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Shepherd, D. P., Hanna, D. C., Price, J. H. V., Malinowski, A., . . . Lefort, L. (2002). Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator driven by a femtosecond mode-locked fiber laser. Optics Letters, 27(12), 1052-1054. Scopus38 |
| 2002 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Lloyd, P. S., Shepherd, D. P., Hanna, D. C., Gawith, C. B. E., . . . Balachninaite, O. (2002). Extended operation of synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators to longer idler wavelengths. Optics Letters, 27(23), 2106-2108. Scopus26 |
| 2001 | Hanna, D. C., O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., & Shepherd, D. P. (2001). Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator with diffraction-grating tuning. Journal of Physics D Applied Physics, 34(16), 2440-2454. Scopus39 |
| 1995 | Devrelis, V., O'Connor, M., & Munch, J. (1995). Coherence length of single laser pulses as measured by CCD interferometry. Applied Optics, 34(24), 5386-5389. Scopus13 WoS10 Europe PMC1 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Monro, T., & Afshar Vahid, S. (2007). Receiver Protection Using Novel Nonlinear Optical Fibres. In Joint Strike Fighter Conference (pp. 0 pages). Melbourne, Australia. |
| 2005 | Smith, P. G. R., Ming, L., O'Connor., & Gawith, C. B. E. (2005). Zinc diffused lithium niobate waveguides for high conversion efficiency second harmonic generation. In Lithium Niobate Workshop. Metz, France. |
| 2005 | Naz, N. A., O'Connor, M. V., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2005). An intelligent, synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator using adaptive pulse-shaping techniques. In 2005 Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics CLEO Vol. 3 (pp. 1841-1843). IEEE. DOI |
| 2004 | Connor, M. V. O., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2004). Femtosecond optical parametric oscillators: A practical approach for power scaling tunable sources. In J. A. C. Terry, & W. A. Clarkson (Eds.), Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering Vol. 5620 (pp. 77-83). SPIE. DOI |
| 2003 | Lloyd, P. S., O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Thomson, B. C., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2003). Pulse shaping in an optical parametric oscillator with fibre feedback. In Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics Europe Technical Digest (pp. 246). IEEE. DOI Scopus1 |
| 2003 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2003). Synchronously pumped, mid-infrared CdSe optical parametric oscillator. In Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics Europe Technical Digest (pp. 284). IEEE. DOI |
| 2003 | O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2003). Tuning of a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator via a four-plate birefringent filter. In Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics Europe Technical Digest (pp. 274). IEEE. DOI |
| 2002 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Lloyd, P. S., Balachninaite, O., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2002). Long-wavelength operation of synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators based on periodically poled LiNbO3. In Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics CLEO Technical Digest (pp. 321). Scopus1 |
| 2002 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Lloyd, P. S., Balachninaite, O., Shepherd, D. P., & Hanna, D. C. (2002). Long-wavelength Operation of Synchronously Pumped Optical Parametric Oscillators Based on Periodically Poled UNbO3. In Optics Infobase Conference Papers. |
| 2001 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Hanna, D. C., & Shepherd, U. P. (2001). Diffraction grating tuning of a high power, synchronously pumped PPLN OPO. In Optics Infobase Conference Papers. |
| 2001 | O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Hanna, D. C., Shepherd, D. P., Lefort, L., Price, J. H. V., . . . Richardson, D. J. (2001). Fibre-laser-pumped femtosecond PPLN optical parametric oscillator. In Conference Proceedings Lasers and Electro Optics Society Annual Meeting LEOS Vol. 2 (pp. 756-757). |
| 2001 | Watson, M. A., O'Connor, M. V., Hanna, D. C., & Shepherd, D. P. (2001). Diffraction grating tuning of a high power, synchronously pumped PPLN OPO. In Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics Europe Technical Digest (pp. 446-447). IEEE. DOI |
| 2001 | O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Hanna, D. C., Shepherd, D. P., Lefort, L., Price, J. H. V., . . . Richardson, D. J. (2001). Fibre-laser-pumped femtosecond PPLN OPO. In Conference Proceedings. Glasgow, Scotland. |
| 2001 | O'Connor, M. V., Watson, M. A., Hanna, D. C., & Shepherd, D. P. (2001). Agile tuning of a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator using a diffraction grating. In Conference Proceedings. Munich, Germany. |
| 1998 | O'Connor, M. V. (1998). Small Underwater Range-finder. In Workship Proceedings. DSTO Adelaide, Australia. |
| 1997 | Devrelis, V., O'Connor, M., Munch, J., Afshar V, S., & Wei, C. -J. (1997). Experimental investigation for the reduction of intensity and phase instabilities in stimulated Brillouin scattering. In Conference Proceedings. Adelaide, Australia. |
| 1996 | Devrelis, V., O'Connor, M., Munch, J., Afshar V, S., Wei, C. -J., & Grisogono, A. M. (1996). Fidelity of Optical phase conjugation using stimulated Brillouin scattering. In Conference Proceedings. Sydney, Australia. |
| 1995 | O'Connor, M. V., Devrelis, V., & Munch, J. (1995). Phase conjugated Nd:YAG laser oscillator with Stimulated Brillouin Scattering. In Conference Proceedings. Charleston, United States. |
| 1995 | O'Connor, M. V., & Munch, J. (1995). Phase Conjugated Nd:YAG laser oscillator with SBS. In Conference Proceedings. Brisbane, Australia. |
| 1993 | O'Connor, M. V., & Devrelis, V. (1993). Phase Conjugation of solid state lasers. In Conference Proceedings. Melbourne, Australia. |
| 1993 | O'Connor, M. V., Devrelis, V., & Munch, J. (1993). Optical Phase Conjugated Mirrors for solid state lasers. In Conference Proceedings. Sydney, Australia. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| - | Luiten, A., O'Connor, M., Wu, K., Tettamanzi, G., Al-Ashwal, W., Baynes, F., & Henderson-Sapir, O. (n.d.). Sapphire Clock - Defence Applications. DOI |
Research Grants Awarded:
- D.C. Hanna, D.P Shepherd, M.V. O’Connor, “Intelligent Light Sources”, EPSRC GR/S47359/01, £200k
- D.P. Shepherd, D.J. Richardson, M.V. O’Connor, “Adaptive Control of High-Power Femtosecond Pulse Propagation in Optical Fibres”, EPSRC EP/C002199/1, £295k
- D.P. Shepherd, J.G. Frey, D.C. Hanna, M.V. O’Connor, “Intelligent Mid-Infrared Light Sources: Towards Coherent Control of Molecular Vibrational Motion”, EPSRC GR/T25590/01 , £55k
- D.P. Shepherd, J.G. Frey, D.C. Hanna, D.J. Richardson, M.V. O’Connor “An Intelligent Mid-Infrared Femtosecond Pulse Generator”, EPSRC Instrument Fund EP/C009479/1, £612k
| Date | Role | Committee | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 - 2016 | Co-Chair | SA Photonics Roadmap Steering Group | - | - |
