About Us

CUDOS is a research consortium between seven Australian Universities:

The University of Sydney (main host of CUDOS), Macquarie University, University of Technology Sydney, Australian National University, Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University and Monash University.

We are funded by the Australian Research Council under the Centres of Excellence program.

The Research Director is Professor Ben Eggleton, with Professor Yuri Kivshar as Deputy Director and Professor Martijn de Sterke as Associate Director.

During the past three years, CUDOS has played a pivotal role in demonstrating ground-breaking integrated photonic signal processors that can massively increase the information capacity of the Internet (covered recently by Catalyst www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2675781.htm). We now have clear evidence that single-element photonic processors provide processing speeds (bandwidths) orders of magnitude greater than those of electronics, bringing us within reach of breathtaking capabilities that will transform almost every facet of the information society and economy.

• Waveguides, to transport light around the photonic circuit.
• Nonlinear waveguides, which are the basis of wavelength shifters, demultiplexers, optical performance monitors and other nonlinear signal processing elements. CUDOS’ highly nonlinear waveguides made of chalcogenide glass have established international benchmarks in these applications.
• Filters, for example Bragg filters in waveguides, which isolate a specific spectral component of the light being processed.

What more is needed?

• We would like to perform these signal processing applications at very low powers, to ensure that the power of photonic processors is not consumed by the energy they consume. By going to single photon power levels, we can also open up a host of quantum photonic processing applications.
• We would like to integrate different materials into the one photonic device, so that we can, for example, bring together linear and nonlinear components on the one chip.
• We would like to develop new optical materials whose properties are very, very different to anything used to date, and open up completely new design options for photonic circuits. Photonic crystals show us the way: these artificial materials are made by writing periodic sub-wavelength features into materials like silicon; by doing so, we obtain optical properties completely different to the host material. We will extend this to the study of metamaterials, a dramatic new field in photonics where materials can have negative refraction, or can ‘cloak’ an object to make it invisible.

These exciting research opportunities will be explored by CUDOS over the coming years to develop ultrafast signal processors, quantum photonic processors, and integrated photonic devices for the mid infrared.