IPAS Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing Associate Professor David Lancaster [email protected].

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IPAS Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing Associate Professor David Lancaster [email protected] Slide 2 www.ipas.edu.au Photonics controls, uses and manipulates light Photonics is made up of many different technologies: optics, quantum electronics, lasers, detectors, fibres, materials Photonics is essentially photon engineering Electronics revolutionized the 20 th century, photonics is doing the same in the 21 st Slide 3 The natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible (the web) Slide 4 www.ipas.edu.au Light is energy Light is electromagnetic radiation Light has both wave-like and particle-like properties Light interacts with materials and structures Slide 5 Full mirror Partial mirror Laser medium Slide 6 Excited level Ground level Atom in excited level E = h c / Incident photon Before emission During emission After emission E1 E2 h : Plancks constant 6.626 x 10 -34 j.s c : speed of light Laser mirrors Pump light Slide 7 Daniel Colladon first described this "light fountain" or "light pipe" in an 1842 article entitled On the reflections of a ray of light inside a parabolic liquid stream. Modern fibres guide light by total internal reflection in ultra-pure glass fibres World fibre production is 24 million kms/ year Slide 8 Data storage The internet Fibre sensors Laser radars Laser machining Defence Molecular sensing Slide 9 Chemical detection fibre fuel quality sensor hydrogen peroxide monitor in human eggs 125 m fibre (human hair width) < 4 m core Allows light to travel in core (on a light rail !) Light interacts with outside environment Slide 10 Slide 11 Slide 12 Slide 13 Slide 14 91 Day Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project This was the third phase of testing of regenerative life support systems which included a crew of four volunteers living in an air tight chamber environment for 91 days. This work at the Johnson Space Center is in preparation for possible human expeditions away from Earth orbit. Phase I of the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project began on Sept. 19, 1997. This phase used a combination of physical, mechanical, chemical and biological methods to recycle all the air and water used by the crew and to use plants grown in a connecting chamber to provide some of their food. Regenerative life support is a critical enabling technology for future space missions, since astronauts cannot carry all the supplies necessary to support a trip to Mars or an extended stay on a base on the Moon. Slide 15 Developed by D. Richter, D.G. Lancaster, F.K. Tittel Slide 16 = 643nm