Nonlinear topological photonics . The rapidly growing demands of information processing have launched a race for compact optical devices transmitting signals without losses. Topological phases of light provides unique opportunities to create new photonic systems with functionalities and efficiencies well beyond current capabilities. This project aims to develop new ways to generate and guide light at the nanoscale by merging fundamental concepts of nonlinear photonics and topological physics. Th ....Nonlinear topological photonics . The rapidly growing demands of information processing have launched a race for compact optical devices transmitting signals without losses. Topological phases of light provides unique opportunities to create new photonic systems with functionalities and efficiencies well beyond current capabilities. This project aims to develop new ways to generate and guide light at the nanoscale by merging fundamental concepts of nonlinear photonics and topological physics. The outcomes of this project will result in experimental demonstration of the world-first, highly efficient, compact, and lossless nonlinear photonic devices for advanced optical technologies.Read moreRead less
Optical frequency conversion in nonlinear dielectric metasurfaces. This project aims to investigate the mixing of light colours in semiconductor nanocrystals arranged in an ultra-thin transparent film, called a nonlinear metasurface. Understanding of the resonant nonlinear interactions in such metasurfaces will allow for the up and down frequency conversion of light beams and images with efficiencies well beyond current capabilities. The outcomes of the project will form the basis for novel cost ....Optical frequency conversion in nonlinear dielectric metasurfaces. This project aims to investigate the mixing of light colours in semiconductor nanocrystals arranged in an ultra-thin transparent film, called a nonlinear metasurface. Understanding of the resonant nonlinear interactions in such metasurfaces will allow for the up and down frequency conversion of light beams and images with efficiencies well beyond current capabilities. The outcomes of the project will form the basis for novel cost-effective and compact devices for infrared imaging, and will also enable ultra-fast sources of quantum light with tailored spatial and spectral correlations. These will benefit important applications in defence and security, including night vision, security holograms, quantum cryptography and communications.Read moreRead less
Synthetic multi-dimensional integrated photonics. This project aims to develop and realise experimentally integrated circuits where light propagation mimics dynamics in arbitrarily complex imaginary photonic lattices. The project puts forward a universal and mass-fabrication compatible design concept of planar optical structures featuring unconventional synthetic multi-dimensional properties, which can also be reconfigured in real time. This underpins expected outcomes in optical detection with ....Synthetic multi-dimensional integrated photonics. This project aims to develop and realise experimentally integrated circuits where light propagation mimics dynamics in arbitrarily complex imaginary photonic lattices. The project puts forward a universal and mass-fabrication compatible design concept of planar optical structures featuring unconventional synthetic multi-dimensional properties, which can also be reconfigured in real time. This underpins expected outcomes in optical detection with fundamentally enhanced sensitivity and optical signal switching with ultra-low threshold. The benefits of such breakthrough improvements can have broad applications spanning from future optical communication networks to optical sensors for monitoring and health applications.Read moreRead less
Generating Highly Entangled Photons from Nonlinear Monolayer Domes. This project aims to investigate novel monolayer domes for the development of high-performance quantum photon sources. This research expects to expand our understanding of fundamental physics of photon pair generation in nonlinear optical materials. Such monolayer domes have ultra-high optical nonlinearity, which gives rise to strong light-matter interactions and enables high-efficiency photon pair generation. The expected outco ....Generating Highly Entangled Photons from Nonlinear Monolayer Domes. This project aims to investigate novel monolayer domes for the development of high-performance quantum photon sources. This research expects to expand our understanding of fundamental physics of photon pair generation in nonlinear optical materials. Such monolayer domes have ultra-high optical nonlinearity, which gives rise to strong light-matter interactions and enables high-efficiency photon pair generation. The expected outcome is demonstration of a prototype light-weight and intense quantum photon source based on novel materials, which can be readily integrated with photonic circuits for quantum communication technologies. This research could strengthen the development of new industries and lead to job creation.Read moreRead less
Harnessing Interlayer Biexcitons in Atomically Thin Heterostructures. This project aims to investigate the generation of high-quality quantum light sources by harnessing interlayer biexcitons in atomically thin heterostructures. This research expects to expand our understanding of fundamental physics of photon pair generation in atomically thin heterostructures. The expected outcome is demonstration of a prototype light-weight and intense quantum photon source based on novel materials, which can ....Harnessing Interlayer Biexcitons in Atomically Thin Heterostructures. This project aims to investigate the generation of high-quality quantum light sources by harnessing interlayer biexcitons in atomically thin heterostructures. This research expects to expand our understanding of fundamental physics of photon pair generation in atomically thin heterostructures. The expected outcome is demonstration of a prototype light-weight and intense quantum photon source based on novel materials, which can be readily integrated with photonic circuits for quantum communication technologies, enbling the developments of light weight portable devices, such as mobile phones, displays, and wearable photonics. This research could strengthen the development of new industries and lead to job creation in Australia. Read moreRead less
An efficient optical interconnect for superconducting quantum computers. This project aims to develop the technology to connect superconducting quantum computers to the future quantum internet: an optical interconnect. Superconducting qubits are a leading quantum computing system, but their practical use is limited by their microwave operation frequency, as global quantum networks will operate at optical frequencies. This project aims to solve this problem by converting the microwave photons tha ....An efficient optical interconnect for superconducting quantum computers. This project aims to develop the technology to connect superconducting quantum computers to the future quantum internet: an optical interconnect. Superconducting qubits are a leading quantum computing system, but their practical use is limited by their microwave operation frequency, as global quantum networks will operate at optical frequencies. This project aims to solve this problem by converting the microwave photons that carry superconducting quantum information to optical photons. To achieve high efficiency the project will investigate magnetically ordered rare-earth crystals, which uniquely possess the strong optical and microwave coupling required, to build a converter that could greatly enhance the capabilities of quantum computers.Read moreRead less
Harnessing opto-acoustic interactions for on-chip optical isolation. The project aims to develop practical on-chip photonic isolators – one-way optical circuits – by harnessing light–sound interactions in a nanoscale platform novel in its materials, design and mechanism. The project should develop new nanofabrication techniques and transform understanding of the physics of one-way photonic processes. Expected outcomes include enhanced design and fabrication capabilities for photonic circuits, ul ....Harnessing opto-acoustic interactions for on-chip optical isolation. The project aims to develop practical on-chip photonic isolators – one-way optical circuits – by harnessing light–sound interactions in a nanoscale platform novel in its materials, design and mechanism. The project should develop new nanofabrication techniques and transform understanding of the physics of one-way photonic processes. Expected outcomes include enhanced design and fabrication capabilities for photonic circuits, ultra-compact, high-performance optical isolators and circulators that shield sensitive optical components, and a suite of theoretical tools for describing propagation and noise in these devices. These new high performance photonic circuits should benefit telecommunications, radar, defence, and sensing applications. Read moreRead less
Novel source of excited metastable atoms for Atom Trap Trace Analysis. This project aims to understand and to control light-induced processes in atoms by using finely shaped and tailored laser pulses, focusing on efficient production of excited metastable atoms. This is critical for efficient Atom Trap Trace Analysis, the most advanced technique for dating ground water and geological samples. Expected outcomes of this project include new and enhanced knowledge of physics of light-matter interact ....Novel source of excited metastable atoms for Atom Trap Trace Analysis. This project aims to understand and to control light-induced processes in atoms by using finely shaped and tailored laser pulses, focusing on efficient production of excited metastable atoms. This is critical for efficient Atom Trap Trace Analysis, the most advanced technique for dating ground water and geological samples. Expected outcomes of this project include new and enhanced knowledge of physics of light-matter interactions, developing an efficient, clean source of excited metastable atoms, and integrating that source into the Australian National Facility for dating geological samples. This should provide significant benefits, such as significant improvement of operational efficiency and productivity of that facility.Read moreRead less
Efficient phylogenetic methods that manage the curse of genomic complexity. This project aims to develop new methods and software to infer the evolutionary history of organisms using genomic data. These new phylogenomic methods need to take account of the complexity of evolutionary processes and/or patterns in time (along the evolutionary tree) and space (along the genome). This project is significant because these methods must merge mathematics and statistics with High-Performance Computing to ....Efficient phylogenetic methods that manage the curse of genomic complexity. This project aims to develop new methods and software to infer the evolutionary history of organisms using genomic data. These new phylogenomic methods need to take account of the complexity of evolutionary processes and/or patterns in time (along the evolutionary tree) and space (along the genome). This project is significant because these methods must merge mathematics and statistics with High-Performance Computing to handle the huge quantities of genetic data and the complexity of evolution itself. An important expected outcome of this project will be the development and release of freely-available software that incorporates these new methods. This project expects to benefit scientists who need to infer phylogenies from genomic data. Read moreRead less
Inequality, Prosperity and the Australian Welfare State. This project aims to clarify contested understandings of Australian inequality and the role of economic and social policies in addressing policy challenges going forward. The objective of the project is to generate significantly improved knowledge of inequality in Australia using innovative approaches of data splicing, decomposition, simulation and backcasting to fill research gaps and resolve contested interpretations. We aim to provide a ....Inequality, Prosperity and the Australian Welfare State. This project aims to clarify contested understandings of Australian inequality and the role of economic and social policies in addressing policy challenges going forward. The objective of the project is to generate significantly improved knowledge of inequality in Australia using innovative approaches of data splicing, decomposition, simulation and backcasting to fill research gaps and resolve contested interpretations. We aim to provide a benchmark and robust framework against which policy development after the current crisis can be evaluated. This project aims to provide significant benefits, keeping Australia at the forefront of research on inequality and public policy, strengthening links between researchers and policy makers.
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