Prof. Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem: Guest Speaker at 50YGF Symposium Celebrating 50 Years of Fluoride Glass Discovery
Prof Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Director and Deputy Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) and Director of the Optofab Adelaide Hub at the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), actively participated in the 50 YFG Symposium in Rennes France. This event marked the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking discovery of fluoride glasses, a pivotal moment in photonics history.
Organised by ISCR-Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes and Le Verre Fluoré, the symposium attracted participants from around the world, reflecting the global significance of fluoride glass research and development. The discovery, which occurred in 1974 in the laboratory led by Jacques Lucas at Université de Rennes I, was fortuitous, occurring while the Poulain brothers were investigating new fluoride complexes.
This serendipitous discovery laid the foundation for the founding of Le Verre Fluoré in 1977 and sparked intensive research efforts worldwide, resulting in thousands of publications. Companies like IR Photonics (now Thorlabs) and FiberLabs Inc. began commercialising fluoride fibres for research, industry, and medicine, showcasing the tangible impact of this discovery on various sectors.
Prof Ebendorff-Heidepriem's participation in the symposium underscored her passion for devising new methodologies to create novel optical glasses and fibres with potential commercial impact. Her presentations on "ZBLAN fibre drawing in microgravity" and "Fabrication of waveguiding structures in ZBLAN glass through extrusion and laser writing" contributed to the ongoing dialogue on fluoride glass technology and its potential for future technological revolutions.
Heike's team at Optofab manufactured the ZBLAN sent to space for optical fibre production. Optical fibres are used on Earth and in space for applications in medicine, defence, cybersecurity, and telecommunications. Parabolic research has shown that optical fibres produced in microgravity can be of higher quality than those made in normal gravity, and the International Space Station provides a potential platform for the commercial production of these fibres. The Production of Flawless Space Fiber (Flawless Space Fibers-1) investigation, involving NASA and the Luxembourg Space Agency, is using the space station to demonstrate new manufacturing technology developed to improve the quality and length of optical fibre produced in space.
Furthermore, ZBLAN glass is set to play a crucial role in the miniaturised laser setup used in optical frequency combs technology in the newly launched ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs (COMBS). These advanced laser systems, incorporating ZBLAN glass, facilitate the establishment of seamless "light highways" within the laser apparatus, thereby helping the efficient transmission of perfectly spaced multicoloured light. This advancement holds significant implications for many future applications, including breath analysis, air quality monitoring, and portable analysis within disciplines such as medicine and environmental science.
This symposium brings together speakers from around the globe—Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy, the US, the UK, China, Spain, Poland, Brazil, and, of course, France. It underscores the international significance of fluorite glass, showcasing its pivotal role in addressing 21st-century challenges.
Congratulations, or should we say "chapeau", to Professeur Marcel Poulain and the exceptional team at Le Verre Fluoré and ISCR-Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes-UMR CNRS 6226 at the Université de Rennes I for organising this milestone event.