Research into the next generation of nanotechnology devices has led to an award for postgraduate excellence for a Macquarie University PhD physics student.

(L-R) PhD student Andrew Lee with Dr Michael Withford

PhD student Andrew Lee of Macquarie University's Department of Physics and the Centres for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) and Lasers and Applications (CLA) recently won the annual top prize for postgraduate physics students in NSW and the ACT.

Andrew received the 2003 Award for Postgraduate Excellence in Physics from the NSW branch of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP), for his presentation, Direct-write Laser Nanofabrication of Photonic Crystal Circuitry.

Photonic crystals - which naturally occur in butterfly wings and Australian opals - reflect certain wavelengths of light, while allowing others to pass through. Optical chips made of synthetic photonic crystals are tipped to revolutionise the telecommunications and computing industries, as they can help miniaturise devices.

"Everyone's interested in smaller and smaller communication devices which would need smaller chip sizes and the only way you're ever going to get that is by using new technology," says Andrew's co-supervisor and Macquarie CUDOS Node Director, Dr Michael Withford.

"What Andrew and CUDOS are trying to do is turn, for example, a standard 2-metre-tall telecommunications hub with low bandwidth into a high bandwidth facility the size of a matchbox, or a current PC into something that will fit into your back pocket. Andrew is developing components of a photonic chip which can receive and process laser light much the same way as current computer chips process electrons.

"The people that are creating these successfully overseas are those with billion-dollar semiconductor processing capabilities, the IBMs and Toshibas - it's not an area that's readily open to small university groups like ourselves. However, Andrew's successfully developed quite a flexible technique which will allow us to start experimenting in this field," Withford says.

Lee, who previously completed a Bachelor of Optoelectronics and an Honour's year at Macquarie, says it is exciting to be working in such a cutting-edge area of technology.

"This is where it's at in terms of the next generation of devices," he says. "The award gave me a good opportunity to show what we're doing here - it's very exciting work. A lot of people responded well to it, both in terms of the project and its future scope."

The Award was judged by a panel of senior physics academics and AIP staff based on 20-minute student presentations. Lee received first prize, which includes a certificate and $500, in front of contenders from universities within both NSW and the ACT, whose projects ranged from devising the site of a new telescope in the South Pole to novel methods of steel fabrication.

For more information, contact Dr Michael Withford at michael.withford@mq.edu.au
Visit http://www.ics.mq.edu.au/cla/

October 2003

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