Carl Hepburn

Date of Birth:

24^th March, 1971.

Marital Status:

Married

Nationality:

English

Affiliations:

Associate Member of Institute of Physics, (AMInstP)
76-78 Portland Place,
London.
W1N 3DH

e-mail:

hepcj@hotmail.com

Web-site:

Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics

University of Essex: PhD. - GaInNAs Bi-directional Field-Effect Light-Emitting Devices.

University of Essex: MSc. (By Dissertation). Experimental Physics. (Temperature Dependence of Long-wavelength Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers).

University of Essex: BSc. (Hon's) 2:2 Theoretical Physics

• Physics Lecturer - Suffolk College, A-level physics
• Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) - lecturing at the University of Essex. 2003-2006 teaching HTML and web design.
• International Conference Secretary for the 2002, Physics and Technology of Dilute Nitrides Workshop, Istanbul.
• Laboratory demonstrator to MSc Students, teaching HTML and web design.
• Private tuition, teaching physics to A-level students.
• Within the department, creating and maintaining the research group web-site.
• Research assistant, University of Essex.

General

I am fully competent with the Microsoft Office suite of applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access.

Programming Skills

Throughout my degree and research I have programmed using many programming languages. My first modelling was completed using FORTRAN 90. With the advent of high-level programming languages, I use Mathematica and Matlab to model and simulate the processes in optoelectronic devices. I can use Simulink to solve differential equations.
In the lab I have written interfaces to control equipment through GPIB using LabView.

2D and 3D Graphics Programs

Web Design

I have been developing web pages for more than six years with HTML and now XHTML using Cascading-Style Sheets (CSS) for style and layout and dynamic HTML. I have used Dreamweaver, FrontPage and Adobe Go-Live to design web pages although I prefer to write my own code. I experience of using scripting languages such as CGI, Perl, JavaScript and PHP. Recently I have been learning MySQL for web-based database applications.
The web-sites I have developed are:

• fiziks.co.uk - a physics teaching web site created to help my A-level students learn about physics
• britneyspears.ac - Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics which has much acclaim appearing in many of the World's most prestigous newspapers and on the BBC topical news quiz, 'Have I Got News for You'. Since its creation in 2000, it has received over ten-million hits and continues to be popular.

My experimental research has been involved in designing and characterising semiconductor optoelectronic devices such as VCSELs, edge-emitting lasers and Vertical Cavity Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (VCSOAs).

In the past, I have investigated VCSELs that operate in the 1.55μm window, using GaInAsP/InP material systems. Today GaInNAs is the material of choice as the active medium operating at 1.3 μm window. In studying these devices I have used various experimental techniques to characterise optoelectronic devices including: photoluminescence (PL), electroluminescence (EL) and Hakki-Paoli measurements of gain spectra. Many of these techniques have been undertaken over a temperature range of 4.2 K to above 300 K. In performing such experiments, I have become familiar with the use of monochromators, liquid Helium cryostats, vacuum systems, laser-diode controllers, optical spectrum analysers, boxcar averagers, lock-in amplifiers, pulse generators, photomultipliers, detectors, oscilloscopes, free-space optics, optical fibres and optical fibre preparation, Raman amplifiers and Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifiers (EDFAs).

I have experience in control and automation of experiments using GPIB and the serial port using LabView.

• Physics and Technology of Dilute Nitrides Workshop, Istanbul 2002.
• Laser Safety Course, National Radiaological Protection Board. (NRPB)
• University of Aveiro, Portugal: European Commision Summerschool, Low Dimensional Semiconductors for Optoelectronic Devices and Communications Systems.
• Low Dimensional Semiconductors for Optoelectronic Devices and Communications Systems (short course)
• Optical Amplifiers for Telecommunications (short course)
• Advanced Optical Communications (short course)

• Shamim Sidiqqi award 2002, University of Essex.
• Scientific American - best scientific web site 2001

1. "Hot Electron VCSEL" - Part of the SPIE Conference on Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices VII, San Jose, California 1999 SPIE Vol. 3625, 0277-786X/99
   
2. R. Sceats, C. J. Hepburn, R. J. Potter, A. Dyson, N. Balkan, M. J. Adams, "1.5m m Surface Emission from GaInAsP/InP HELLISH structure", SPIE Conference 2001.
   
3. Temperature dependence of GaInAsP VCSELs - Part of the SPIE Conference on Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices, San Jose, California, 2001 SPIE
4. N. Balkan, A. Serpenguzel, A. O. Brien-Davis, I. Sokmen, C. J. Hepburn, R. J. Potter, M. J. Adams J. S. Roberts, "VCSELs structure hot-electron light emitter", Materials Science and Engineering B47 pp 96-100, (2000).
5. R. Sceats, A. Dyson, C. J. Hepburn, R. J. Potter, A. Boland-Thoms, N. Balkan, G. Hill, C. C. Button, S. Pinches, "Hot-electron light emission from GaInAsP/InP structures with distributed Bragg reflectors", Physica E, 17, pp 607-609, (2003)
6. C. J. Hepburn, R. Sceats, A. Borland-Thoms, N. Balkan, A. J. Dann, S. D. Perrin, I. Read, J. Reed, P. Cannard, M. A. Fisher, D. J. Elton, M. J. Harlow, "Temperature dependent operation of GaInAsP/InP VCSELs", Semiconductor Science and Technology, 1,(2003).
7. S. Mazzucato, C. J. Hepburn, N. Balkan, S. Thomas, P. R. Chalker, T. B. Joyce, T. J. Bullough, "Fast thermal annealing in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells" (to be published, 2004)
8. C. J. Hepburn, E. Tiras, S. Mazzucato, N. Balkan, M. Pessa, T. Jouhti. "Performance study of GaInNAs/GaAs SQW Fabry-Perot lasers.", (to be published)

Britney Spears' guide to Semiconductor Physics - a free guide to fundamental semiconductor physics and semiconductor lasers illustrated by Britney Spears. Internationally acclaimed and reviewed in Scientific American, New Scientist, Photonics, Compound Semiconductor, Journal of Materials Science, USA today, The Times, Guardian, Times Educational Supplement, Annals of Improbable Research at Harvard University to name but a few.

My hobbies include drawing and painting. I also enjoy playing the piano.