Bright IDEAS Award: Optical strategies for the manufacture of photonic materials

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Novel photonic structures, such as photonic crystals and metamaterials, are causing a revolution in the way in which we think about controlling, manipulating and using light. Such materials can be manufactured using 3D structuring on the sub-micron/nanometre scale. Most conventional methods of fabrication on this scale are two-dimensional, so are not suited for the efficient construction of 3D materials. However, using non-linear laser-induced optical processes one can create structures with sub-micron 3D resolution as the fabrication effects are confined to the laser focus, rather than being spread out along the beam. There are however limitations that obstruct the further development of such techniques into a viable industrial process. One issue is the loss of resolution and effectiveness of fabrication as one focuses deeper into a 3D material - this limits the currently achievable device thickness. Another limitation is speed - existing processes are often slow, being constrained by the optical design of the systems to serial point-by-point fabrication. In this project, we will develop and apply active and adaptive optical techniques, based around deformable mirror and liquid crystal devices, to overcome these limitations and make 3D optical processing more effective as a manufacturing technology.