Welcome to the Fiber Lasers and Applications Research (FLARe) Laboratory at the Department of ECE, Indian Institute of Science.

We study how the spectrum, noise and coherence of light can be engineered through laser architecture and nonlinear propagation in optical fibers. Our work combines laser physics, nonlinear fiber optics, numerical modelling and experimental system development to create advanced optical sources for imaging, sensing and other demanding photonic applications.

Build light. Engineer its spectrum and noise. Put it to work.

Recent Highlights

Postdoctoral position available: Applications are invited for an ICMR-funded postdoctoral position in low-noise supercontinuum and fiber-laser systems for ultra-high-resolution optical imaging. June 2026: Our work on spectral purity and intensity-noise characteristics of cascaded random Raman fiber lasers, led by PhD student Shantanu, is published in Optics Express. March 2026: FLARe Lab’s first journal paper is published in Optics Express! The work, led by our PhD student Meher, investigates wavelength- and RF-resolved intensity noise in telecom-fiber CW supercontinuum Our group presented three papers at the prestigious SPIE Photonics West 2026 (17th to 22nd Jan 2026) conference held in San Francisco, USA —one of the world’s leading photonics forums. Shantanu was awarded the Best Presentation Award for his outstanding contribution. Congratulations! Dr. Balaswamy Velpula delivered an invited tutorial lecture titled “Fiber Lasers” on 8 December 2025 at the SCOPOSIS 2025 Conference, hosted by PRL, Ahmedabad Dr. Balaswamy, has been honored as an INAE Young Associate 2025 on 1st September! We are thrilled to welcome Mrittik Chakraborti to our group as a new PhD student—welcome aboard, Mrittik! Dr. Balaswamy, on 3rd July 2025, had the privilege of visiting the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany. During the visit, he met with Prof. Nicolas Joly, and Dr. Vishal Choudhury, whose team explores quantum photonics in hollow-core fibers to discuss potential research collaborations. Dr Balaswamy had the honor of visiting LP2N, Institut d’Optique Graduate School in France, and presented “Cascaded Raman fiber lasers: Advancements in Power scalability, spectral purity and intensity noise characteristics”, on 30th June 2025. It was a genuine pleasure to connect with Dr. Giorgio Santerelli and Dr. Roopa Prakash, sharing enriching research discussions over a delightful French-inspired lunch. Dr Balaswamy presented Shantanu’s accepted work on “U shaped RIN characteristics of high spectral purity cascaded random Raman fiber lasers” in CLEO®/Europe-EQEC 2025 conference in Munich, Germany on 28th June 2025. Prof Rohit Reddy from the University of Houston visited our lab on June 16, 2025, where we engaged in a highly productive discussion centered around spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Srikar joined our Group as PhD student on 1st jan 2025. Welcome Srikar! Shantanu and Meher presented their first research papers at International conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics, Photonics-2024 held at IIT Kharaghpur on Dec 14th 2024. Dr Balaswamy Velpula gave a presentation on ” Fiber Lasers” in BJB College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha on 6th Dec 2024. Dr Balaswamy gave an invited talk on “Low intensity noise, continuous wave supercontinuum generation in standard telecom optical fibers”, at SCOPE, PRL Ahmedabad on 26th September 2024. Dr Balaswamy gave a presentation on Tunable and broadband Fiber lasers at Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT), Tumukur on 21st Sept 2024. Dr Balaswamy gave a tutorial course on optical communications at BEL, Bengaluru on 12th Sept 2024. Dr Balaswamy gave a presentation on “Spectral and temporal properties of Fiber Lasers based on nonlinear effects” at International School Of Photonics, CUSAT, in Kochi, Kerala on 23rd August 2024. Prof Srikanth Sugavanam from IIT Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, has visited our lab during summer school on Optics and Photonics in July 2024 Dr Balaswamy presented research work on “low noise CW supercontinuum generation in Standard Telecom fibers” at SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco in Jan 2024 Shantanu and Meher joined as 1st PhD students on 1st August 2023 in our group. Welcome Shantanu and Meher! Raj Kumar Hudda presented his research work on “Intensity Noise Characteristics of Continuous Wave Supercontinuum Generated in Standard Optical Fiber Pumped With High Power Yb Fiber Lasers” at Photonics 2023, IISc in July 2023

Funding Acknowledgement

We are very thankful to all our funding organizations for supporting our research