Creation of New Precision Optical and Microwave Technologies and their Application to Testing the Fundamental of Physics. Clocks and oscillators are crucial for the highest precision scientific and industrial measurements and are the foundation of modern communications technology. Recent developments in laser-cooled optical clocks promise a wave of revolutionary changes to global navigation, timekeeping and precision measurement. Our group has already achieved world's-best performance in this f ....Creation of New Precision Optical and Microwave Technologies and their Application to Testing the Fundamental of Physics. Clocks and oscillators are crucial for the highest precision scientific and industrial measurements and are the foundation of modern communications technology. Recent developments in laser-cooled optical clocks promise a wave of revolutionary changes to global navigation, timekeeping and precision measurement. Our group has already achieved world's-best performance in this field. To stay at the forefront of this wave we propose a broad-ranging program of research aimed at:
- new clocks of 100 times higher performance than any existing clock,
- development of extremely low noise photonic oscillators,
- the application of these new technologies to test the foundations of Physics, including involvement in a space-based experiment.
Read moreRead less
Direct deep-ultraviolet tunable laser sources generating continuous and ultra-short-pulse radiation for photonics applications. This project will develop two versatile and efficient sources of tunable deep-ultraviolet laser radiation. These sources are an enabling photonics technology that will have impact in the applied fields of precision spectroscopy and flow cytometry for detection of biological agents. The proposed ultrafast laser source will enable new fundamental research probing high-ene ....Direct deep-ultraviolet tunable laser sources generating continuous and ultra-short-pulse radiation for photonics applications. This project will develop two versatile and efficient sources of tunable deep-ultraviolet laser radiation. These sources are an enabling photonics technology that will have impact in the applied fields of precision spectroscopy and flow cytometry for detection of biological agents. The proposed ultrafast laser source will enable new fundamental research probing high-energy processes, such as ultrafast chemical reactions, on the femtosecond timescale.
Training through an APD fellowship in the national priority area of Frontier technologies: photonics will enhance Australia's expertise in this important area. Read moreRead less
Compact Low-Cost Tunable UV Lasers for Biosensing Applications. Detection and characterisation of micro-organisms such as airborne biological agents, parasites in domestic water supplies and micro-organisms used in the food and beverage industry, is of national importance. All biological systems have rich absorption signatures in the UV enabling detection of biological specimens with high sensitivity and selectivity using optical methods. For these applications compact and inexpensive tunable U ....Compact Low-Cost Tunable UV Lasers for Biosensing Applications. Detection and characterisation of micro-organisms such as airborne biological agents, parasites in domestic water supplies and micro-organisms used in the food and beverage industry, is of national importance. All biological systems have rich absorption signatures in the UV enabling detection of biological specimens with high sensitivity and selectivity using optical methods. For these applications compact and inexpensive tunable UV lasers are required; however to date tunable UV lasers have been limited to bulky and expensive systems. We propose to engineer novel, low cost, compact, tunable UV cerium lasers and demonstrate their applicability to selective optical detection of micro-organisms.Read moreRead less
Advancing x-ray imaging into new dimensions using interferometry and phase-space tomography. Synchrotron science and nanofabrication technologies are priority investment areas for most industrial countries including Australia. This research program takes advantages of recent progress in these fields and aims to advance x-ray imaging techniques of high sensitivity and low radiation dose and retrieve all extractable information of an object encoded in a wavefield. The development of these techniqu ....Advancing x-ray imaging into new dimensions using interferometry and phase-space tomography. Synchrotron science and nanofabrication technologies are priority investment areas for most industrial countries including Australia. This research program takes advantages of recent progress in these fields and aims to advance x-ray imaging techniques of high sensitivity and low radiation dose and retrieve all extractable information of an object encoded in a wavefield. The development of these techniques is critical to future opportunities of frontier discoveries of the biological, nano and atomic world. Its application includes structural biology, medical diagnosis, biomedicine, material sciences and many other fields.Read moreRead less
Across the Gravitational Wave Spectrum. Violent astrophysical events in the universe emit gravitational waves across a spectrum from mHz to kHz, producing an infinitesimal?but detectable'strain in space-time itself. Like high energy physics projects, gravitational wave detection involves giant multi million dollar research facilities and extensive international collaboration. This project will develop ideas, equipment and algorithms which will enhance the performance of both high frequency (gro ....Across the Gravitational Wave Spectrum. Violent astrophysical events in the universe emit gravitational waves across a spectrum from mHz to kHz, producing an infinitesimal?but detectable'strain in space-time itself. Like high energy physics projects, gravitational wave detection involves giant multi million dollar research facilities and extensive international collaboration. This project will develop ideas, equipment and algorithms which will enhance the performance of both high frequency (ground) and low frequency (space) based laser interferometer type detectors, and see Australia expand its already important role in searching for nature's most elusive signals.Read moreRead less
Short-pulse laser cleaning for Australian heritage conservation. Conserving heritage objects is a demanding discipline, requiring a suite of techniques for different problems. Overseas, laser cleaning using long pulse techniques leaves microscopic damage as discrete chunks of material are removed, and is unsuitable for many materials. We have developed a short pulse laser process which can remove material molecule-by-molecule in a controlled fashion, and which can be readily halted once the fi ....Short-pulse laser cleaning for Australian heritage conservation. Conserving heritage objects is a demanding discipline, requiring a suite of techniques for different problems. Overseas, laser cleaning using long pulse techniques leaves microscopic damage as discrete chunks of material are removed, and is unsuitable for many materials. We have developed a short pulse laser process which can remove material molecule-by-molecule in a controlled fashion, and which can be readily halted once the final finish is achieved. We will research this technique for application to unique Australian heritage materials that are important to the specific conservation needs of the Australian War Memorial, the RAAF, Navy and Army Museums, Artlab Australia, and the Art Gallery of NSW.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0882580
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$400,000.00
Summary
Laser facility for quantum optics, imaging, and fabrication. The laser facility will play a role in advancing high-profile leading-edge Australian research underpinning a diverse range of technologies, from quantum communications and quantum computing, to biomedical imaging, fibre sensing and nanofabrication.
Quantum Photonics with continuous laser beams - travel award. Quantum information and communication is a new paradigm in information technology which utilises quantum physics to improve current limitations in speed, security and fidelity of information transmission and processing, extending the present Electronics and Photonics devices. Future applications will include teleportation, cryptography and ultimately quantum computation. We propose to investigate these applications using continuous (C ....Quantum Photonics with continuous laser beams - travel award. Quantum information and communication is a new paradigm in information technology which utilises quantum physics to improve current limitations in speed, security and fidelity of information transmission and processing, extending the present Electronics and Photonics devices. Future applications will include teleportation, cryptography and ultimately quantum computation. We propose to investigate these applications using continuous (CW) laser beams and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) quantum entanglement, which is generated via a pair of optical parametric oscillators. The advantage of CW over the established single photon technology is better detection efficiency, wider data bandwidth and a compatibility with existing photonics technology.Read moreRead less
Non-Gaussian states and entanglement distillation for Continuous Variable quantum information protocols. Amplifiers are important devices for electronic, computer as well as telecommunication industries. In the quantum world where light's corpuscular nature is prominent, amplification of a beam of light will have its associated noise penalty. This noise penalty sets limit to many quantum optical applications. This proposal aims to use a method based on conditional detection to realize a 'noisel ....Non-Gaussian states and entanglement distillation for Continuous Variable quantum information protocols. Amplifiers are important devices for electronic, computer as well as telecommunication industries. In the quantum world where light's corpuscular nature is prominent, amplification of a beam of light will have its associated noise penalty. This noise penalty sets limit to many quantum optical applications. This proposal aims to use a method based on conditional detection to realize a 'noiseless linear amplifier' that has no noise penalty probabilistically. Realization of this key device is central to extending the range of quantum communication, such as quantum cryptography. It also has applications in quantum computing and the potential to enhance sensitive measurements.Read moreRead less
Low threshold photonic crystal microlasers. The aims of this project are to develop detailed finite-difference time-domain numerical models of active photonic crystal structures, and to use them to optimise the design and performance of photonic-crystal-based devices, especially micro-cavity lasers. Photonic crystal microlasers have the potential to provide very efficient and low noise laser sources in micron-sized cavities, however the simplistic structures used to realise these lasers to date ....Low threshold photonic crystal microlasers. The aims of this project are to develop detailed finite-difference time-domain numerical models of active photonic crystal structures, and to use them to optimise the design and performance of photonic-crystal-based devices, especially micro-cavity lasers. Photonic crystal microlasers have the potential to provide very efficient and low noise laser sources in micron-sized cavities, however the simplistic structures used to realise these lasers to date provide sub-optimal performance. Innovative designs with improved performance will be developed by tailoring both the optical and thermal properties of planar photonic crystal stuctures. Devices designed during this project will subsequently be fabricated at facilities in France.Read moreRead less