The research laboratories of the University of Sydney School of Physics node of CUDOS consist of six individual laser laboratories, a large common area housing an extensive suite of high bit-rate test equipment as well as a number of other projects and work stations, a laboratory devoted to the tapering of optical fibres and a clean room housing an automatic alignment system. The facilities are all housed within the School of Physics on the Camperdown campus of the University of Sydney. (More about USYD's facilities)

ANU Nonlinear Physics Centre

Two fully equipped experimental nonlinear optics laboratories were established in the first year of the Centre. (More about ANU Nonlinear's facilites)

ANU Laser Physics Centre

The CUDOS team in the Laser Physics Centre (LPC) at the Australian National University fabricates planar optical waveguides and photonic crystal structures from chalcogenide glasses in support of the CUDOS program. The resulting structures are supplied to other researchers within CUDOS, involved in device development and testing, particularly those at the University of Sydney. LPC’s offices and laboratories occupying some 1500m² of space are located in the John Carver, Cockroft and Huxley buildings in the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at ANU. (More about ANU Laser's facilites)

Macquarie University

The research laboratories of the CUDOS @ Macquarie Node include our newly refurbished photonics laboratories (total space 115 m²) housing a suite of micro-processing and micro-characterisation equipment. The group also has access to a clean room and profilometers. These facilities are all housed within building E7B on the Macquarie University campus. In addition, the CUDOS @ Macquarie group led a University based consortium seeking funding for a new scanning electron microscope with an Energy Dispersion System for identification of the chemical components in our substrates. This device was installed in the adjoining building in 2005 and is freely accessed by CUDOS staff and students. (More about Macquarie's facilities)

Swinburne University of Technology Centre for Micro-Photonics

Ti:Sapphire femtosecond lasers and an optical parametric oscillator have been used for the fabrication of photonic crystal structures in polymer materials and lithium niobate crystals. (More about Swinburne's facilities)

University of Technology Sydney

Computational modelling is integral to the research programs of CUDOS and comprises both the development of new tools, and the use of software systems that are in wide used in the photonics industry. In contemporary photonics research, 3D simulation is now mandatory, with actual design work requiring the simulation of real 3D systems in order to accurately characterise device performance. By its very nature, 3D modelling is very demanding and requires the use of large memory, parallel computer systems. While there are a numerous simulation tools in use in the industry, finite difference time domain (FDTD) codes are now in universal use, with these now regarded as the pre-eminent general purpose simulation tool in photonics and related areas, in which direct simulation of the electromagnetic field is required. With a FDTD code, the system response is determined by numerically integrating Maxwell’s equations in both space and time, allowing a pulse or continuous wave to be evolved and analysed in any device geometry. (More about UTS's facilities)