Photonics Technologies

• Bragg Gratings - CRC developed a new process to fabricate high-quality Bragg gratings in optical fibres and crystals. The technique does not require the target material to be photosensitive in the traditional sense, making it useful for high temperature sensor applications. The work resulted in five publications in international peer-reviewed journals, three international peer-reviewed conference publications, the formal filing of one U.S. patent, a filing of a continuation in part on that patent, and the provisional filing of a third U.S. patent. Collaborations with several national and international labs have also been established.
  
• Optical Switching - CRC has designed and fabricated prototype, waveguide switches to demonstrate optical switching. These injection current-based switches have on-off extinction ratios of better than 20dB and exhibit sub-microsecond switching times, several orders of magnitude faster than those currently available with commercial optical switches. The potential applications for broadband optical networks are significant, including network re-configuration and fault restoration.
  
• Fibre Fabrication - Ultra-long fused-tapered fibres (up to 90 mm in length, 1 micron in diameter) have been successfully fabricated, in collaboration with local universities and government labs. Potential applications include the generation of frequency combs, used for frequency standards and broadband optical sources.
  
• Planar Lightwave Circuits (PLCs) - Materials for PLCs have been developed and characterized and devices incorporating these optimized materials are being designed and fabricated for both in-house projects and outside clients. Applications include process optimization through refractive index monitoring, Bragg grating inscription and Mach-Zehnder devices for optical network functions.