Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems

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The Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (or CUDOS) was a collaboration of Australian and international researchers in optical science and photonics technology. CUDOS is an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence and was formally launched in 2003.

Contents

Funding history

CUDOS commenced operation in 2003 as one of the first Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence, [1] and began with 4 research programs across 7 groups.

It continued through 2007 when ARC renewed funding for another 3 years.

The latest incarnation is based on new ARC funding from 2011 to 2017, with Australian and international researchers collaborating on 6 new Flagship projects. [2]

Participants

CUDOS is a research consortium between 8 groups at 6 Australian Universities: The University of Sydney (CUDOS headquarters), Australian National University, Macquarie University, University of Technology Sydney, RMIT University and Monash University.

The Research Director is Professor Ben Eggleton, with Professor Yuri Kivshar as deputy director and Professor Martijn de Sterke as associate director.

Aims

CUDOS aims to be the world-leader in research in on-chip photonics, for all-optical signal processing. The centre conducts research to create a world-best on-chip photonic platform for information transfer and processing technologies. CUDOS aims to translate the intellectual capital, which the researchers create to build a community of professionals which can drive wealth creation in Australia. [3]

Research

CUDOS brings together a powerful team of Australian and international researchers in optical science and photonics technology, and has played a pivotal role in demonstrating ground-breaking integrated photonic signal processors that can massively increase the information capacity of the Internet. [4]

The centre currently has six Flagship Projects.

Functional Metamaterials and Metadevices: Metamaterials are synthesised on the sub-wavelength scale to have optical properties (refractive index, dispersion) that can differ dramatically from those of bulk materials: perfect lenses, cloaking, and negative refractive index materials are examples. CUDOS aims to develop metamaterials that will enable entirely new ways to control photons.

On-chip Nanoplasmonics: The refractive index of metals is very high, so the wavelength of the optical modes is very short. CUDOS is developing novel techniques to fabricate nano-structured composites of metals and optically transmitting materials. They are investigating novel modes of light propagation in these materials and use them to create ultracompact devices like transmission lines and antennae. The vision of this project is to develop three- and two-dimensional nanoplasmonic structures that can allow unprecedented control of light at the sub wavelength scale.

Hybrid integration: As metamaterials, nanoplasmonic materials and new kinds of nonlinear optical materials are developed, they need to be integrated with existing optical platforms of silicon or chalcogenide, so that light can pass from one material to another on the same 'chip'. This project aims to develop novel designs for integrating such hybrid materials, and novel fabrication techniques.

Mid-Infrared Photonics: The mid-infrared region of the spectrum (3 – 10 µm) has enormous potential for highly efficient sensing of molecules significant in agriculture, natural resource management, homeland security, and others. CUDOS developed photonic platforms and novel sources for this region.

Nonlinear Quantum Photonics: This research focuses on highly compact approaches based on nonlinear optics to generate single photons. The aim is to achieve this on a chip and create a fully integrated flexible platform to generate these single photons and use them to perform quantum-based processing operations.

Terabit per second Photonics: All-optical processing has the potential to replace electronics in many areas of ultrahigh bandwidth communications systems. CUDOS is developing all-optical processors, using nonlinear optics, and investigating new approaches to enable much higher volumes of data to be carried per unit of optical bandwidth.

CUDOS research has been working towards optical circuitry which could result in much faster speeds for data transmission. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonics</span> Technical applications of optics

Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Photonics is closely related to quantum electronics, where quantum electronics deals with the theoretical part of it while photonics deal with its engineering applications. Though covering all light's technical applications over the whole spectrum, most photonic applications are in the range of visible and near-infrared light. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonic crystal</span> Periodic optical nanostructure that affects the motion of photons

A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the atomic lattices of semiconductors affect their conductivity of electrons. Photonic crystals occur in nature in the form of structural coloration and animal reflectors, and, as artificially produced, promise to be useful in a range of applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metamaterial</span> Materials engineered to have properties that have not yet been found in nature

A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is rarely observed in naturally occurring materials. They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics. These materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence. Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but from their newly designed structures. Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them their smart properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.

Optical computing or photonic computing uses light waves produced by lasers or incoherent sources for data processing, data storage or data communication for computing. For decades, photons have shown promise to enable a higher bandwidth than the electrons used in conventional computers.

Slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed by the interaction with the medium in which the propagation takes place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon photonics</span> Photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium

Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commonly at the 1.55 micrometre wavelength used by most fiber optic telecommunication systems. The silicon typically lies on top of a layer of silica in what is known as silicon on insulator (SOI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Shalaev</span> American optical physicist

Vladimir (Vlad) M. Shalaev is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Scientific Director for Nanophotonics at Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negative-index metamaterial</span> Material with a negative refractive index

Negative-index metamaterial or negative-index material (NIM) is a metamaterial whose refractive index for an electromagnetic wave has a negative value over some frequency range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonic metamaterial</span> Type of electromagnetic metamaterial

A photonic metamaterial (PM), also known as an optical metamaterial, is a type of electromagnetic metamaterial, that interacts with light, covering terahertz (THz), infrared (IR) or visible wavelengths. The materials employ a periodic, cellular structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metamaterial cloaking</span> Shielding an object from view using materials made to redirect light

Metamaterial cloaking is the usage of metamaterials in an invisibility cloak. This is accomplished by manipulating the paths traversed by light through a novel optical material. Metamaterials direct and control the propagation and transmission of specified parts of the light spectrum and demonstrate the potential to render an object seemingly invisible. Metamaterial cloaking, based on transformation optics, describes the process of shielding something from view by controlling electromagnetic radiation. Objects in the defined location are still present, but incident waves are guided around them without being affected by the object itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of metamaterials</span>

The history of metamaterials begins with artificial dielectrics in microwave engineering as it developed just after World War II. Yet, there are seminal explorations of artificial materials for manipulating electromagnetic waves at the end of the 19th century. Hence, the history of metamaterials is essentially a history of developing certain types of manufactured materials, which interact at radio frequency, microwave, and later optical frequencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transformation optics</span> Branch of optics which studies how EM radiation can be manipulated with metamaterials

Transformation optics is a branch of optics which applies metamaterials to produce spatial variations, derived from coordinate transformations, which can direct chosen bandwidths of electromagnetic radiation. This can allow for the construction of new composite artificial devices, which probably could not exist without metamaterials and coordinate transformation. Computing power that became available in the late 1990s enables prescribed quantitative values for the permittivity and permeability, the constitutive parameters, which produce localized spatial variations. The aggregate value of all the constitutive parameters produces an effective value, which yields the intended or desired results.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coherent perfect absorber</span>

A coherent perfect absorber (CPA), or anti-laser, is a device which absorbs coherent waves, such as coherent light waves, and converts them into some form of internal energy, e.g. heat or electrical energy. It is the time-reversed counterpart of a laser. Coherent perfect absorption allows control of waves with waves without a nonlinear medium. The concept was first published in the July 26, 2010, issue of Physical Review Letters, by a team at Yale University led by theorist A. Douglas Stone and experimental physicist Hui W. Cao. In the September 9, 2010, issue of Physical Review A, Stefano Longhi of Polytechnic University of Milan showed how to combine a laser and an anti-laser in a single device. In February 2011 the team at Yale built the first working anti-laser. It is a two-channel CPA device which absorbs two beams from the same laser, but only when the beams have the correct phases and amplitudes. The initial device absorbed 99.4 percent of all incoming light, but the team behind the invention believe it will be possible to achieve 99.999 percent. Originally implemented as a Fabry-Pérot cavity that is many wavelengths thick, the optical CPA operates at specific optical frequencies. In January 2012, thin-film CPA has been proposed by utilizing the achromatic dispersion of metal-like materials, exhibiting the unparalleled bandwidth and thin profile advantages. Shortly after, CPA was observed in various thin film materials, including photonic metamaterial, multi-layer graphene, single and multiple layers of chromium, as well as microwave metamaterial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Eggleton</span> Australian scientist & academic

Benjamin John Eggleton,, is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney. He is also Professor in the School of Physics where he leads a research group in photonics, nanotechnology and smart sensors and serves as co-director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN).

A plasmonic metamaterial is a metamaterial that uses surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature. Plasmons are produced from the interaction of light with metal-dielectric materials. Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create self-sustaining, propagating electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Once launched, the SPPs ripple along the metal-dielectric interface. Compared with the incident light, the SPPs can be much shorter in wavelength.

Ortwin Hess is a German-born theoretical physicist at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Imperial College London (UK), working in condensed matter optics. Bridging condensed matter theory and quantum optics he specialises in quantum nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials and semiconductor laser dynamics. Since the late 1980s he has been an author and coauthor of over 300 peer-reviewed articles, the most popular of which, called "'Trapped rainbow' storage of light in metamaterials", was cited more than 400 times. He pioneered active nanoplasmonics and metamaterials with quantum gain and in 2014 he introduced the "stopped-light lasing" principle as a novel route to cavity-free (nano-) lasing and localisation of amplified surface plasmon polaritons, giving him an h-index of 33.

Integrated quantum photonics, uses photonic integrated circuits to control photonic quantum states for applications in quantum technologies. As such, integrated quantum photonics provides a promising approach to the miniaturisation and scaling up of optical quantum circuits. The major application of integrated quantum photonics is Quantum technology:, for example quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum simulation, quantum walks and quantum metrology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandra Boltasseva</span> American physicist and engineer

Alexandra Boltasseva is Ron And Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, and editor-in-chief for The Optical Society's Optical Materials Express journal. Her research focuses on plasmonic metamaterials, manmade composites of metals that use surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature.

Judith M. Dawes is an Australian physicist who is Professor of Physics at Macquarie University. She studies the interactions of light at the nanoscale and the applications of lasers in sensing. She is a former president of the Australian Optical Society, and a Fellow of SPIE and Optica.

Isabelle Philippa Staude is a German photonics researcher and Professor at the Friedrich Schiller Universitaet, Jena. Her research involves the creation of plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials for the dynamic manipulation of light.

References

  1. ↑ ARC Centres of Excellence Selection Report for funding commencing in 2003, Retrieved 2013-07-04
  2. ↑ "Kudos for CUDOS". www.arc.gov.au. 6 April 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  3. ↑ "CUDOS launch". sydney.edu.au. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  4. ↑ "Catalyst: Photonic Chip - ABC TV Science". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  5. ↑ Radio Australia – Innovations – Slow Light Data. Creating a chip to accelerate internet speed a thousand times. 30 October 2006 Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  6. ↑ Miller, Nick. Accelerating the internet to the speed of light. The Age. 9 May 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  7. ↑ Foreshew, Jennifer. Research progress in fibre optics. Australian IT. 1 November 2005 Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  8. ↑ Researchers demonstrate dynamic dispersion compensation in Optium WSS. Lightwave, 29 March 2007
  9. ↑ Kenny, Kath. Breaking the Internet's glass ceiling. Sydney University News, 9 July 2008. Retrieved 2013-07-04
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