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
Producing optimally short pulses at long wavelengths. This project aims to make the fluoride glass fibre platform the preferred material for generating ultrashort pulses at 2.8 nm and beyond. High power and efficiency from simple device architectures are essential for industry, medicine and defence. Modern sources of short pulses of light emitting mid-infrared wavelengths are complicated and inefficient. This project will improve fibre sources emitting short pulses and create the essential build ....Producing optimally short pulses at long wavelengths. This project aims to make the fluoride glass fibre platform the preferred material for generating ultrashort pulses at 2.8 nm and beyond. High power and efficiency from simple device architectures are essential for industry, medicine and defence. Modern sources of short pulses of light emitting mid-infrared wavelengths are complicated and inefficient. This project will improve fibre sources emitting short pulses and create the essential building blocks for future all-fibre arrangements that will be more robust. The sources are expected to have applications in non-linear optics and materials modification.Read moreRead less
Pumping up the volume on sound-light interactions. This project aims to create a new class of integrated microwave information processors on a single optical chip. Using electro-acoustic coupling in semiconductors, we expect to reduce optical power requirements hundredfold, enabling the emergence of practically deployable processors using ordinary telecom lasers. The expected project outcomes are inexpensive, compact, stable and energy efficient microwave photonic processors, a key requirement f ....Pumping up the volume on sound-light interactions. This project aims to create a new class of integrated microwave information processors on a single optical chip. Using electro-acoustic coupling in semiconductors, we expect to reduce optical power requirements hundredfold, enabling the emergence of practically deployable processors using ordinary telecom lasers. The expected project outcomes are inexpensive, compact, stable and energy efficient microwave photonic processors, a key requirement for reference standards and precision measurements of time and frequency. This technology has the potential to create a multitude of opportunities for commercial development in the fields of defence, information security, autonomous vehicles, sensing, and ultra-high bandwidth mobile communications.Read moreRead less
Catching the fast waves: high speed RF sensing using Brillouin scattering. This project aims to develop a room temperature approach to fast sensing of microwave electromagnetic waves by harnessing stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), simultaneously achieving high frequency range, high resolution and high-speed performance. This project expects to generate new knowledge in microwave photonics and SBS, specifically elucidating the transient temporal response of SBS. Expected outcomes of this pro ....Catching the fast waves: high speed RF sensing using Brillouin scattering. This project aims to develop a room temperature approach to fast sensing of microwave electromagnetic waves by harnessing stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), simultaneously achieving high frequency range, high resolution and high-speed performance. This project expects to generate new knowledge in microwave photonics and SBS, specifically elucidating the transient temporal response of SBS. Expected outcomes of this project include a proof of concept RF sensor that has multi-Gigahertz real-rime instantaneous bandwidth with high-resolution that can be miniaturized on to a chip. This compact RF sensor, will play a vital role for situational awareness in space, defence and communications applications. Read moreRead less
Unlocking the ultraviolet. This project will develop a new class of ultra-short-pulse and broadly tunable laser with performance in the ultraviolet that is unobtainable from current infrared-based laser technologies. Our invention will unlock the elusive ultraviolet part of the spectrum to allow new discoveries in fundamental science and to drive twenty-first-century technologies.
Through a glass brightly: opening up the mid-infrared using dysprosium ions. By exploiting the dysprosium ion in a unique and practical way, the project will create high power mid-infrared light with unprecedented optical efficiency. The project will make use of the unusually wide fluorescence spectrum of the dysprosium ion to produce stable and bandwidth-limited ultra-fast light pulses in the mid-infrared. The proposed light sources will have application in mid-infrared nonlinear optics and wil ....Through a glass brightly: opening up the mid-infrared using dysprosium ions. By exploiting the dysprosium ion in a unique and practical way, the project will create high power mid-infrared light with unprecedented optical efficiency. The project will make use of the unusually wide fluorescence spectrum of the dysprosium ion to produce stable and bandwidth-limited ultra-fast light pulses in the mid-infrared. The proposed light sources will have application in mid-infrared nonlinear optics and will benefit medicine, defence, fundamental physics and manufacturing providing excellent opportunities for Australian research, industry and collaboration.Read moreRead less
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
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.
A Multi-Optrode Array for Closed-Loop Bionics. We will design, implement and characterise a disruptive multi-channel optrode array (MOA) to record and stimulate excitable living tissue. The MOA will be a combination of individual optical electrodes (optrodes) that either comprise a new class of liquid crystals, used to passively sense extracellular biopotentials, or microphotovoltaic cells that will be used for electrical stimulation of excitable tissue. By employing light for communication with ....A Multi-Optrode Array for Closed-Loop Bionics. We will design, implement and characterise a disruptive multi-channel optrode array (MOA) to record and stimulate excitable living tissue. The MOA will be a combination of individual optical electrodes (optrodes) that either comprise a new class of liquid crystals, used to passively sense extracellular biopotentials, or microphotovoltaic cells that will be used for electrical stimulation of excitable tissue. By employing light for communication with optrodes, this new approach alleviates many of the wiring, packaging and encapsulation issues associated with existing devices. Computational modelling and in vitro testing in cardiac tissue and retinal neurons will demonstrate the utility of the MOA to sense and control electrical activity.Read moreRead less
Design of an optrode for next generation brain-machine interfaces. The project plans to use a new class of liquid crystals – deformed helix ferroelectric (DHF) liquid crystal – to sense extracellular biopotentials. In response to an applied electrical field, it has been shown that DHF crystals can modulate a polarised light source with extraordinary sensitivity and linear response down to the microvolt range. Using this technology, the project plans to initially design and test a single optrode ....Design of an optrode for next generation brain-machine interfaces. The project plans to use a new class of liquid crystals – deformed helix ferroelectric (DHF) liquid crystal – to sense extracellular biopotentials. In response to an applied electrical field, it has been shown that DHF crystals can modulate a polarised light source with extraordinary sensitivity and linear response down to the microvolt range. Using this technology, the project plans to initially design and test a single optrode device on the bench, before in vitro testing and characterisation using two-photon microscopy. The final design would be a higher density sensor array using a fibre optic source and multiple optical couplers. This may support the development of new ways to implant sensing and diagnostic devices in the body.Read moreRead less