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Creating a national time and frequency network for Australia. This project will develop the means to distribute accurate time and frequency across the Australian continent via an optical fibre network. This network will meet the needs of future telecommunications, science and astronomy projects including the Australian bid for the Square Kilometre Array radio-astronomy project.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100045
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Coherent Laser Links for Space Applications. Coherent laser links for space applications:
This project seeks equipment to establish a deployable, free-space, coherent laser link to enable Australia’s continued leadership and involvement in large-scale international space projects. It would support optical free-space frequency transfer to expand the capability of the European Space Agency’s Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space mission; tests to validate the inter-satellite interferometry acquisition s ....Coherent Laser Links for Space Applications. Coherent laser links for space applications:
This project seeks equipment to establish a deployable, free-space, coherent laser link to enable Australia’s continued leadership and involvement in large-scale international space projects. It would support optical free-space frequency transfer to expand the capability of the European Space Agency’s Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space mission; tests to validate the inter-satellite interferometry acquisition system for the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment follow-on mission; and test-bed development for advanced coherent optical communications systems. Coherent, free-space laser links are an emerging technology for a range of high-impact research fields. The project would enable research relying on precision measurements of time and frequency; advanced inter-satellite laser interferometry, and coherent free-space optical communications. Read moreRead less
Understanding nature with twisted photons. Technological and scientific advances occur due to new tools being used to explore nature. This project will give Australia the world leadership in the study of nature through the use of twisted photons. This new tool may open the door to answer fundamental questions about the universe.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100164
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$500,000.00
Summary
GNOSIS: a new window on the early universe using revolutionary photonic technology. Australian astronomers have a long history in innovative instrumentation and are some of the early pioneers in infrared astronomy. The GNOSIS project brings together leading Australian astronomers to build on past success. This facility instrument makes use of recent technological advances in photonics—a key strength of Australian research and industry—to provide a dramatic improvement in observational sensitivit ....GNOSIS: a new window on the early universe using revolutionary photonic technology. Australian astronomers have a long history in innovative instrumentation and are some of the early pioneers in infrared astronomy. The GNOSIS project brings together leading Australian astronomers to build on past success. This facility instrument makes use of recent technological advances in photonics—a key strength of Australian research and industry—to provide a dramatic improvement in observational sensitivity at these wavelengths. This will allow Australian astronomers to carry out new science programmes that have not been possible to date. These programmes include unprecedented observations of very cool low mass stars, the first chemical information on dust-embedded star clusters, and accurate ages for distant galaxies.Read moreRead less
Removing the blur: Guidestar lasers for the space industry . The speed and quality of transferring information between earth and space can be greatly enhanced by adaptive optical systems that provide correction for atmospheric aberrations. The laser-generated guidestars that lie at the heart of these systems must be bright, preferably multi-coloured and with low background. By taking advantage of the unique optical properties of diamond, this project aims to develop lasers that produce these adv ....Removing the blur: Guidestar lasers for the space industry . The speed and quality of transferring information between earth and space can be greatly enhanced by adaptive optical systems that provide correction for atmospheric aberrations. The laser-generated guidestars that lie at the heart of these systems must be bright, preferably multi-coloured and with low background. By taking advantage of the unique optical properties of diamond, this project aims to develop lasers that produce these advanced features to fulfil the needs of the space industry sector. These outcomes are expected to create new services and products in the areas of space situational awareness, space debris management and satellite communications, and have major spin-off benefits to astronomy and defence.Read moreRead less
Harnessing Mid-Infrared Photonic Technologies for Exoplanetary Discovery. This project will create new three-dimensional photonic technologies operating in the mid-infrared capable of discovering exoplanets. Starlight from this optimally-favourable spectral band will be collected over six of more apertures and undergo advanced on-chip photonic processing which will null out the bright starlight, but preserve the faint signature betraying the presence of an exoplanet. This device will empower vis ....Harnessing Mid-Infrared Photonic Technologies for Exoplanetary Discovery. This project will create new three-dimensional photonic technologies operating in the mid-infrared capable of discovering exoplanets. Starlight from this optimally-favourable spectral band will be collected over six of more apertures and undergo advanced on-chip photonic processing which will null out the bright starlight, but preserve the faint signature betraying the presence of an exoplanet. This device will empower visionary future astronomical instruments on the worlds most advanced telescopes.Read moreRead less
Sound and fury: finding planets amidst the noise of their dying stars. As solar-like stars expand to become red giants, their planetary systems gradual get destroyed, and the planet helps the stars to throw off their outer layers. This project will develop economic precise spectrographs to detect planets around giant stars and establish how this interaction occurs.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100191
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
PRAXIS: beating the infrared night sky with multicore fibre Bragg gratings. PRAXIS: beating the infrared night sky with multicore fibre Bragg gratings:
The PRAXIS project aims to deliver a new era in ground-based infrared observations. The infrared night sky is a hundred times brighter than the optical night sky, which has severely limited the sensitivity at these wavelengths. But 99 per cent of the infrared sky arises from hundreds of extremely bright, narrow emission lines due to hydroxyl in ....PRAXIS: beating the infrared night sky with multicore fibre Bragg gratings. PRAXIS: beating the infrared night sky with multicore fibre Bragg gratings:
The PRAXIS project aims to deliver a new era in ground-based infrared observations. The infrared night sky is a hundred times brighter than the optical night sky, which has severely limited the sensitivity at these wavelengths. But 99 per cent of the infrared sky arises from hundreds of extremely bright, narrow emission lines due to hydroxyl in the Earth's atmosphere. PRAXIS, at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, is designed to cancel these lines using new multicore fibre Bragg gratings developed in Australia. The new fibres would render the night sky very dark and allow Australian astronomers to obtain unique observations. The sky-suppressing fibres would also allow us to develop new instrument concepts for Australia's extremely large telescope.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101585
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$388,463.00
Summary
Harnessing Astrophotonics and Adaptive Optics to Discover Habitable Planets. This project aims to improve spectrographic design in order to increase precision in astronomical research. The discovery of Earth's twin, a habitable world in another stellar system, is one of the most remarkable scientific endeavours of our time. The gravitational tug of the planet on its host star causes a periodic Doppler shift of the star’s spectrum which is recorded using spectrographs. The instrumental precision ....Harnessing Astrophotonics and Adaptive Optics to Discover Habitable Planets. This project aims to improve spectrographic design in order to increase precision in astronomical research. The discovery of Earth's twin, a habitable world in another stellar system, is one of the most remarkable scientific endeavours of our time. The gravitational tug of the planet on its host star causes a periodic Doppler shift of the star’s spectrum which is recorded using spectrographs. The instrumental precision required to detect an Earth-like planet is a few centimetres per second, significantly better than the best current spectrographs can provide. This project plans to combine novel technologies from adaptive optics and astrophotonics into an innovative spectrograph design that will improve Doppler precision by a factor of ten, sufficient to find planets.Read moreRead less