Students working in the newly refurbished photonics laboratory.

Come and visit the new “Photonics” foyer with superb holograms on display!

The demand for the photonics laboratory space has increased with the introduction of the coursework postgraduate programs in photonics developed and implemented by Professor Michael Gal. A major capital works program, managed by Gabriel Caus, has ensured the entire refurbishment of the optoelectronics teaching laboratory: new rooms, new power and lighting, and a new holography work area. The laboratory now enables students to use modern equipment to study and understand the new age of information technology and communications.

The laboratory can cater for a wider range of students, including: physics majors in their final undergraduate year; photonics engineering students in their third and fourth year; post-graduate coursework students completing the laboratory segment of their programs; and medical and ophthalmology students studying the properties of lasers.

The available experiments cover a wide range of topics:
• Lasers: HeNe gas lasers, solid-state laser diodes and neodymium-YAG lasers.
• Optical fibres: single mode and multimode used as sensors and in communications multiplexing.
• Holography: reflection and transmission holograms are recorded by students.
• Spectroscopy: infra-red/visible using gratings, Fabry-Perot and Fourier transform techniques.

One of the big problems previously was interference from stray light. A major feature of the new laboratory fit-out is the special purpose lighting designed by John Tann. On each of the optical tables in the laboratory, a series of individually dimmable spotlights permits adjustment to just the right level of foreground lighting. This allows students to perform an experiment without causing stray light to interfere with nearby experiments.

The laboratory is also currently host to an expert in holography, Dr Paula Dawson from UNSW’s College of Fine Arts. Paula makes large scale holograms, and specializes in the artistic applications of holograms. One of Paula’s recent success has been the creation of a large synthetic (computer generated) white-light colour hologram one metre square. A cooperative program between Paula and the teaching laboratory will enable physics students to learn some of the finer points of holography.

Patrick McMillan