Current members
Dr. Richard McCracken
Richard joined Heriot-Watt University in 2010 to carry out his PhD developing OPO frequency combs, and enjoyed it so much he stayed on as a post-doc. In 2017 he was awarded a Research Fellowship, where his work now focuses on the development of novel laser systems for multi-photon microscopy, astrophotonics, and mid-infrared imaging. He became an Assistant Professor in 2021 and Associate Professor in 2023.
Richard is the Global Head of Discipline for Physics. He currently delivers a Y2 Astrophysics module (B28AP), and has won Heriot-Watt Student Union Oscars for Innovation in Teaching and Best PhD Supervisor.
Seb Robarts
Postgraduate student
Seb graduated from Heriot-Watt University in 2022 with a BSc in Mathematical Physics. His undergraduate project built upon work completed as part of a Carnegie vacation scholarship, in parallelised full-field modelling of OPO cavities, expanding applications of the model to highly dispersive systems and birefringent phase matching.
Seb joined the McCracken lab in October of 2022 as a PhD student and is working to further enhance computational modelling of devices for ultrafast photonics and quantum optics, with a view to optimising the design process for systems producing bespoke spectra.
Miguel Moran Coto
Postgraduate student
Miguel graduated from Heriot-Watt University in 2021 with a BSc in Physics. His undergraduate project focused on the design of a diode pumped Ti:sapphire amplifier for high-repetition-rate laser pulses.
After a year and a half working in the group of Dr. Maria Ana Cataluna, Miguel joined the McCracken lab as a PhD student in May 2023. He is currently developing prism-based OPO systems to produce picosecond pulses in the near infrared.
Former members
Dr. David Bajek
Research Associate
David joined the McCracken lab in 2020 as a Research Associate working on high-energy OPOs for three-photon microscopy, focusing on the development of compact, low-rep-rate OPO cavities to produce sub-µJ pulses in the near-infrared. David left in 2022 to join the Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma Accelerators (SCAPA) and is now working at Dundee University.
Danny Hunter
Postgraduate student
Danny graduated from Heriot-Watt University in 2020 with a BSc in Physics. Her undergraduate project focused on the characterisation of a femtosecond laser source for surface ablation.
Danny joined the McCracken lab in October of 2020 as a PhD student and is developing low-cost OPOs for microscopy using retroretlecting prisms. She graduated in 2024 and is now lecturing at Fife College.
Ewan Allan
Postgraduate student
Ewan graduated from the University of Dundee in 2020 receiving an MSci (Hons) in Physics. His undergraduate project focused on designing and building a light sheet microscope to be used for live in situ 3D imaging of plant roots and associated soil microbial processes.
Ewan joined the McCracken lab in September of 2020 as a PhD student and is working on developing cost effective and compact high energy OPOs for three-photon microscopy. He graduated in 2024 and is now a postdoctoral research associate in the Ultrafast Optics Group under Prof. Derryck Reid.