UNSW Photonics and Optical Communications Group has access to a wide range of state-of-the art facilities for advanced research in Photonics. Our facilities underpin key cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary photonics research spanning chemistry, physics and engineering across Australia and globally.
Joint National Fibre Facility
The Joint National Fibre Facility at UNSW is the latest state-of-the-art silica fibre fabrication facility, built on the combined experience of optical fibre research based across NSW. It’s supported by Australian Research Council and nine Australian University partners including:
- The University of New South Wales (UNSW)
- The University of Sydney
- The University of Melbourne
- Macquarie University
- Victoria University of Technology
- Wollongong University
- Swinburne University of Technology
- The University of Newcastle
- The University of Southern Queensland
It is dedicated to the production of research grade silica fibres and enhancing the pioneering work in Australian optical fibre research, pioneered at UNSW, over many decades. It includes on-site MCVD fabrication, the tallest research intensive draw tower in the Southern Hemisphere and extensive characterisation equipment including a new perform analyser. Through its partners, a comprehensive and complete characterisation process for all optical fibres exists.
For more information, contact Prof. Gang-Ding Peng.
Other facilities
Our researchers have access to:
- MCVD Facility: recently undergone a major upgrade with a new in Heathway MCVD control system and lathe installation
- Polymer fiber fabrication facility: this includes material processing systems, polymerisation systems, fiber drawing rig
- Advanced Planar Waveguide Fabrication facility: The laboratory has an advanced planar waveguide fabrication facility based on Hollow Cathode Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (HC-PECVD) and Hollow Cathode - Reactive Ion Etch (HC-RIE) systems
- Silica Fiber Grating and Fiber Laser Fabrication System: an industrial standard facility for fiber Bragg grating inscription using UV Ar ion laser. Using this facility high standard Bragg gratings can be inscribed in silica fibers.
- Polymer Fiber Grating Fabrication Facility: this lab is home to a high power He-Cd laser, Phase masks and modified Sagnac interferometric Bragg grating setup for grating inscription
- UV-IR Tunable Laser MOPO
- Preform Analyser System
- Various photonics and optical test and characterisation systems