Light is essential to our daily lives—in fact, new light-based technologies are helping to find solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. Various optical devices can convert light into electrons, plasmons and different coloured light (other photons). These effects can be used in a range of applications, including medical imaging and diagnosis, telecommunications, energy and water purification.

Our work in medical imaging includes the development of advanced holographic and fluorescent microscopy systems, and the discovery of new biochemical and microfluidic methods to image living biological cells. In the area of energy conversion and storage, we are using plasmonic and semiconductor materials to create new ultrathin light-sensitive and enhancement devices. Within the field of information processing, we are investigating novel optoelectronic devices by applying quantum optics techniques.

With funding from the public and private sectors, we collaborate with industry partners and other research groups—including physicists, astronomers, medical scientists and various Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence.

Explore our available student research projects below and if you’d like to discuss opportunities for collaboration or funding, please email us.