Photonic Materials & Optical Fibres

The research group has access to and collaborates closely with ANFF-Optofab Adelaide, providing them with a diverse range of expertise and facilities in glass and fibre fabrication, functionalisation and characterisation as well as advanced subtractive and additive manufacturing of metal, polymer, ceramics and glass. The research areas developed in the group range from fundamental science to application-driven design and development.

Key areas of application strength include the development of:

• Tellurite and fluoride glasses (both passive and active)
• Glasses with custom compositions
• Advanced technologies for processing and shaping glass
• Advanced preform technologies (extrusion, 3D printing and drilling based)
• Glasses and fibres capable of transmitting light in the mid-infrared that underpin new sensing platforms and lasers
• Silica microstructured optical fibres, including suspended and exposed core silica fibres for sensing
• Soft glasses and optical fibres with enhanced infrared transmission and optical nonlinearity
• Hybrid glass fibres created by embedding nano-/micro-crystals in glass
• Microstructured soft glass fibres for sensing and nonlinear processing
• Microstructured polymer fibres for THz guidance
   

Modelling is primarily carried out in collaboration, examples include:

• A suite of analytical, numerical and finite-element modelling tools to predict the optical properties of waveguides and fibres
• New theoretical frameworks to explore waveguides and fibres with extreme properties and nanoscale features
• Mathematical modelling of the complex mechanics of fluid flow

Fabrication of glasses and fibres are conducted in partnership with Optofab Adelaide. Examples are:

• Controlled atmosphere glass batching, melting, casting and annealing
• Soft and hard glass preform extrusion
• Soft and hard glass and silica preform ultrasonic milling
• Soft glass and silica fibre drawing
• Soft glass 3D printing based on filament deposition
• Silica 3D printing using silica nanoparticles loaded resin
• Splicing of soft glass and silica fibres

Adelaide is fortunate to have access to a range of characterisation facilities including:

• High-resolution optical and electron microscopes
• Transmission spectrometers and ellipsometers spanning from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared spectral region (200 nm-30 μm)
• Optical profiler to measure surface roughness
• Simultaneous thermal analysis (STA/TGA/DSC)
• Fibre loss measurement
• Optical tables for laser and optical experiments