26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Session

ANZCOP: Terahertz, Microwave & Photonic Instrumentation

ANZCOP

10 Dec 2026, 14:00

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

803. Photonic terahertz sources for quantum instrumentation and spectroscopy

James Seddon (Dept of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, University College London)

10/12/2026, 14:00

ANZOS | THz and RF Photonics (ANZCOP THZRFPH)

Invited talk

The terahertz band remains underused in quantum technology. Microwave and optical frequencies underpin most quantum computing, communication and sensing platforms, yet the THz spectrum is where rare-earth crystal-field transitions, phonon modes and low-energy spin excitations all reside has largely been treated as a region to be avoided rather than exploited. Progress depends less on new...

717. Seeing in the Dark: An Upgraded Photonic Beam Combiner for the GLINT instrument.

Elizabeth Arcadi (Macquaire University)

10/12/2026, 14:30

ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Contributed Oral

Nulling interferometry provides a method for detecting faint companions close to bright stars by suppressing the on-axis stellar signal while transmitting light from an off-axis source. This approach is implemented in the Guided Light Interferometric Nulling Technology (GLINT) instrument at the Subaru Telescope, where an integrated photonic beam combiner is used to perform simultaneous nulling...

776. Exoplanets to Ore: Translating Astronomical Instrumentation for Mining Applications

Glen Douglass (Macquarie University)

10/12/2026, 14:45

ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Contributed Oral

Astronomical instrumentation regularly pushes the limits of science and engineering, enabling us to observe the Universe with ever-increasing precision, sensitivity and detail. The technologies developed for these extreme measurement challenges can also create impact beyond astronomy, with applications in medicine, environmental monitoring, mining, defence and space. This paper describes an...

451. Fabrication of Hybrid Mode Selective Waveguide for Astronomical Instrumentation

Jin Wei (School of Physics, the University of Sydney, Australia)

10/12/2026, 15:00

ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Contributed Oral

Hybrid mode-selective photonic lanterns (HMSPL) provide a route to combine efficient multimode coupling with mode-specific single-mode extraction, which is attractive for astrophotonic instrumentation, wavefront sensing, and spatial-mode manipulation[1]. We present two six-core HMSPL designs targeting preferential selection of the LP01 and LP02 modes using circular packing [2].
The...

771. Pre-Compensation Adaptive Optics with Photonic Lanterns

Teodor Malendevych (University of Sydney)

10/12/2026, 15:15

ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Contributed Oral

Ground-to-space optical communication can be advantageous to radio due to higher data rates and better security. It is, however, much more susceptible to atmospheric turbulence resulting in signal loss. Downlinks can be corrected with existing adaptive optics (AO) technology while on the uplink weight and power concerns make AO unappealing for satellite terminals. Atmospheric pre-compensation...