It is a little known fact, that Ms Spears is an expert in semiconductor physics. Not content with just singing and acting, in these pages she will guide you in the fundamentals of the vital laser components that have made it possible to hear her super music in a digital format.

This site is written and designed by Carl Hepburn, a post-graduate student, at the University of Essex, in the UK. Carl is currently working for a PhD in GaN-based devices. He did his first degree in theoretical physics and you can download a .pdf copy of his MSD dissertation, Temperature Dependence of Long-wavelength Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), which contains lots of useful information about VCSELs and background information on lasers in general.

"I started writing these pages to help me consolidate some of the information I had been reading while studying for my MSD. At the time I was also learning HTML and the writing this web site helped me to do both at the same time," Carl says.