Routing shapes of light for the next generation of fibre optic networks. In 2016, the United Nations declared access to the Internet as basic human right. Our communication networks are facing a capacity crunch, which will transform a basic human right for everyone into a privilege for a few. This project aims to avoid a capacity crunch by creating innovative solutions for the next generation of optical fibre communication networks. This project stands to generate new knowledge in photonics, opt ....Routing shapes of light for the next generation of fibre optic networks. In 2016, the United Nations declared access to the Internet as basic human right. Our communication networks are facing a capacity crunch, which will transform a basic human right for everyone into a privilege for a few. This project aims to avoid a capacity crunch by creating innovative solutions for the next generation of optical fibre communication networks. This project stands to generate new knowledge in photonics, optical communication and advanced manufacturing. The expected benefits are new academic collaborations, enhancing Australia’s international standing and economic benefit through commercialisation and training of students for the growing photonics industry in Australia.Read moreRead less
Teaching old dogs new tricks: making ordinary glass both guide and modulate light in photonic chips. The continued revolution of telecoms, and other industries, by photonics demands active integrated photonics: chips that can switch, modulate and modify light. Currently this requires problematic materials. This project will innovatively combine breakthroughs in two areas: poling and laser writing, to produce active devices in standard silicate glass chips.
Advanced Hybrid Fibres for Functional Biomedical Imaging. This project expects to develop new techniques and devices for biomedical imaging. Biomedical imaging is widely used for medical diagnosis and treatment, with different types of imaging providing different information. This project aims to develop techniques that will allow imaging using safer nonionising terahertz radiation, with better resolution than ever before. It plans to combine this with optical, visible and infrared imaging to gi ....Advanced Hybrid Fibres for Functional Biomedical Imaging. This project expects to develop new techniques and devices for biomedical imaging. Biomedical imaging is widely used for medical diagnosis and treatment, with different types of imaging providing different information. This project aims to develop techniques that will allow imaging using safer nonionising terahertz radiation, with better resolution than ever before. It plans to combine this with optical, visible and infrared imaging to give very broad spectral information. It also aims to develop probes for direct interfacing to tissue to collect and deliver electrical signals, light and fluids, and to image neural activity. The intended outcome of the project is to allow single cancer cells within tissue to be identified to allow early stage cancer detection, and to develop implantable devices for neuroscience research and pain management.Read moreRead less
Silicon-photonic devices harnessing new resonance phenomena. Silicon photonics is emerging as a billion dollar global technology industry and waveguide resonators are among the most crucial building blocks for silicon photonic systems. This project aims to introduce an entirely new class of optical waveguide resonator based on recently discovered unusual coupling behaviour in silicon photonics. The science underpinning this new effect will be investigated and experimentally verified and the myri ....Silicon-photonic devices harnessing new resonance phenomena. Silicon photonics is emerging as a billion dollar global technology industry and waveguide resonators are among the most crucial building blocks for silicon photonic systems. This project aims to introduce an entirely new class of optical waveguide resonator based on recently discovered unusual coupling behaviour in silicon photonics. The science underpinning this new effect will be investigated and experimentally verified and the myriad opportunities for novel device concepts will be explored. The compact resonant structures resulting from this project are expected to offer unprecedented filtering functionality while remaining compatible with silicon photonic mass manufacture, ensuring they can be easily utilised by the broader community.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101535
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,000.00
Summary
Smart radio-frequency filter in a tuneable optical circuit. A massive technology gap of high quality tuneable filters in the microwave (1-100 GHz) frequency range is impeding advances towards fully-reconfigurable wireless systems. This project aims to address this limitation and to deliver the world's first reconfigurable microwave filter with unprecedented tuning range, resolution, and selectivity using integrated microwave photonics technology. The project aims to produce the critical filter t ....Smart radio-frequency filter in a tuneable optical circuit. A massive technology gap of high quality tuneable filters in the microwave (1-100 GHz) frequency range is impeding advances towards fully-reconfigurable wireless systems. This project aims to address this limitation and to deliver the world's first reconfigurable microwave filter with unprecedented tuning range, resolution, and selectivity using integrated microwave photonics technology. The project aims to produce the critical filter technology for advanced radio spectrum management and efficient bandwidth utilisation. The project will endeavour to have a profound impact on virtually all high bandwidth microwave systems in key sectors such as wireless communications, defence, and radio astronomy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100614
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,220.00
Summary
Terahertz metamaterial waveguides: a platform to create the next generation of compact THz devices. This project will make terahertz waveguide-based devices by exploiting metamaterials, man-made composite materials capable of controlling light in new ways. This project will build hollow-core metamaterial waveguides, where the large dimension (a few millimetres) of current rigid waveguides will be reduced to a few tens of microns. This project will demonstrate tuneable spectral filtering using th ....Terahertz metamaterial waveguides: a platform to create the next generation of compact THz devices. This project will make terahertz waveguide-based devices by exploiting metamaterials, man-made composite materials capable of controlling light in new ways. This project will build hollow-core metamaterial waveguides, where the large dimension (a few millimetres) of current rigid waveguides will be reduced to a few tens of microns. This project will demonstrate tuneable spectral filtering using these novel waveguides, leading to realisation of the world's first hollow-core waveguide-based metamaterial device. The outcome will have a profound impact on the next generation of terahertz devices, high resolution imaging and high sensitivity biosensors, which are indispensable tools for many disciplines including biology, medicine, forensic and public safety.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100585
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,000.00
Summary
On-chip generation and processing of high-power multi-GHz frequency combs. The project aims to deliver a chip-scale stable optical frequency comb technology with high-power and multi-GHz frequency spacing. The lack of this technology has prevented fundamental advances in wide-ranging applications that require high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) combs. The project seeks to demonstrate combs using waveguide laser technology and to integrate it with a reconfigurable optical filter to select and proces ....On-chip generation and processing of high-power multi-GHz frequency combs. The project aims to deliver a chip-scale stable optical frequency comb technology with high-power and multi-GHz frequency spacing. The lack of this technology has prevented fundamental advances in wide-ranging applications that require high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) combs. The project seeks to demonstrate combs using waveguide laser technology and to integrate it with a reconfigurable optical filter to select and process individual comb lines. Key advantages of this technology, including high SNR, reconfigurability, high stability, small footprint and low-cost, are expected to improve astronomy’s ability to detect Earth-like planets, telecommunications to increase the overall internet capacity, and global positioning systems (GPS).Read moreRead less
Ultra-fast serialised all optical image processing: addressing the electronic bottleneck in the world's fastest camera. Serial time encoded amplified microscopy can capture over a million frames per second. At this rate, a megapixel image would fill a terabyte hard disk in a second. We will use photonics to condense and manipulated the video stream so that only the important features are 'seen', making it practical to process and store on a computer.
Controlling atomic species migration in laser irradiated glasses. This project aims to determine the role of common glass constituents on desired optical properties. More than 50 major research groups and numerous commercial start-ups worldwide are pursuing ultrafast laser inscription, an enabling manufacturing platform used to create complex three-dimensional optical circuits inside transparent blocks of glass. However, although successfully used, we still don’t understand why similar glass typ ....Controlling atomic species migration in laser irradiated glasses. This project aims to determine the role of common glass constituents on desired optical properties. More than 50 major research groups and numerous commercial start-ups worldwide are pursuing ultrafast laser inscription, an enabling manufacturing platform used to create complex three-dimensional optical circuits inside transparent blocks of glass. However, although successfully used, we still don’t understand why similar glass types react differently, and we are limited to using generic glasses tailor-made for other purposes. This project will guide future choice of glasses and reveal how to engineer materials that complement this fabrication platform.Read moreRead less
New frontiers in ultra-wideband electro-optic measurement technologies. The project will lead to new frontier technologies for scientific instrumentation with greatly improved accuracies and ultra wide bandwidth capability with outcomes enhancing Australia's research profile in measurement science. New capabilities developed will benefit areas such as neuroscience, high-speed electronic circuitry designs and imaging.