Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS)

Optical Materials & Structures - Developing new techniques to fabricate a wide range of novel glasses, structured glass preforms via extrusion, passive, active, doped and structured soft and silica fibres. Underpinning sensing, non-linear, laser and light sources in the mid-IR and beyond.

Lasers & Nonlinear Optics - Developing fibre, solid-state, planar waveguide, supercontinuum lasers, and fibre-based nonlinear devices such as frequency converters and optical switches.

Surface Science & Synthetic Chemistry - Developing novel chemical surface coatings and surface functionalisation strategies to enable the realisation of sensors for specific chemicals and biomolecules.

Chemical & Radiation Sensing - Developing novel optical fibre based chemical sensors (IVF, corrosion, wine, agriculture), optical dating with luminescence technologies and the development of innovative radiation dosimeters.

Medical Diagnostics & Biological Sensing - Developing new technologies in conjunction with clinicians and biologists, pushing the boundaries of speed, sensitivity and sample volumes.

Remote Sensing - Developing and deploying photonic technologies for sensing at a distance – LIDAR (dust, SOx and NOx, wind, water vapour), high energy astrophysics and gravitational wave detection (LIGO).

Further Enquiries

IPAS
Sara Leggatt - Email
Telephone: +61 8 8313 1059
Facsimile: +61 8 8303 4380

The University of Adelaide
SA 5005 Australia
Email
Telephone: +61 8 8303 5996
Facsimile: +61 8 8303 4380

The Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing fosters excellence in research in materials science, chemistry, biology and physics and develops disruptive new tools for measurement.

Experimental physics research of any flavour focuses on pushing the limits of what can be measured. IPAS creates the opportunity to invent and harness new tools for measurement to address many of the current exciting big questions in science. Many of the challenges we face as a society can only be solved by pursuing a transdisciplinary approach that brings together experimental physicists, chemists, material scientists, biologists, experimentally driven theoretical scientists and medical researchers to create new sensing and measurement technologies. This is the vision of IPAS. We work to create new tools that will change the questions scientists can ask, stimulate the creation of new industries, and create a new profession of transdisciplinary problem solvers.

IPAS annual report for 2011

Key Research Themes:

The Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing has been founded on the success of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics, a joint centre of the University of Adelaide and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the recognition of the importance that new forms of advanced sensing will play in the world [IPAS brochure].

Part of this recognition has been the award of $29M from EIF for the construction of a new headquarters building to house IPAS. This has been further supplemented by $5M from Government of South Australia and other monies from DSTO and NCRIS schemes.