The Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems is an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence
Contents
CUDOS is a research consortium between 8 groups at 7 Australian Universities: The University of Sydney, Australian National University, Macquarie University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Technology Sydney, RMIT University and Monash University.
The Director is Professor Ben Eggleton and the Deputy Director is Professor Yuri Kivshar.
Funding/History
CUDOS began in 2003 as one of the first Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence. It continued through 2007 when ARC renewed funding for another 3 years.
The latest incarnation is based on new ARC funding from 2011-2017.
Research
The Centre currently has six Flagship Projects.
Optical Metamaterials: Metamaterials are synthesised on the sub-wavelength scale to have optical properties (refractive index, dispersion) that can differ dramatically from those of bulk materials: perfect lenses, cloaking, and negative refractive index materials are examples. CUDOS aims to develop metamaterials that will enable entirely new ways to control photons.
Nanoplasmonics: The refractive index of metals is very high, so the wavelength of the optical modes is very short. CUDOS is developing novel techniques to fabricate nano-structured composites of metals and optically transmitting materials. They are investigating novel modes of light propagation in these materials and use them to create ultracompact devices like transmission lines and antennae.
Hybrid integration: As metamaterials, nanoplasmonic materials and new kinds of non linear optical materials are developed they need to be integrated with existing optical platforms of silicon or chalcogenide, so that light can pass from one material to another on the same ‘chip’. This project aims to develop novel designs for integrating such hybrid materials, and novel fabrication techniques.
Quantum integrated photonics: This research focuses on highly compact approaches based on nonlinear optics to generate single photons. The aim is to achieve this on a chip and create a fully integrated flexible platform to generate these single photons and use them to perform quantum-based processing operations.
Mid infrared quantum photonics: The mid infrared region of the spectrum (3 – 10 µm) has enormous potential for highly efficient sensing of molecules significant in agriculture, natural resource management, homeland security, and others. CUDOS is working to develop photonic platforms and novel sources for this region.
Terabit per second processing: All-optical processing has the potential to replace electronics in many areas of ultrahigh bandwidth communications systems. CUDOS is developing all-optical processors using nonlinear optics, and investigating new approaches to enable much higher volumes of data to be carried per unit of optical bandwidth.
CUDOS research has been working towards optical circuitry which could result in much faster speeds for data transmission.