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

Session

COMMAD: THz and Infrared Materials and Devices

COMMAD

10 Dec 2026, 14:00

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Conveners

COMMAD: THz and Infrared Materials and Devices

• Hoe Tan (The Australian National University)

86. Semiconductor Nanostructures for Advanced Terahertz Detection and Polarimetry

Michael Johnston (University of Oxford)

10/12/2026, 14:00

COMMAD - Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices

Invited talk

Terahertz (THz) technologies are increasingly important for imaging, spectroscopy, sensing and future wireless communications, creating demand for compact, sensitive and scalable detector platforms [1]. Group III–V semiconductor nanostructures offer unique opportunities for THz photonics through their high charge-carrier mobility, controllable charge dynamics, strong electromagnetic anisotropy...

741. Tuneable 3D-Printed Fabry-Pérot Filters for the Terahertz Spectral Range

Michal Zawierta (The University of Western Australia)

10/12/2026, 14:30

COMMAD - Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices

Contributed Oral

Fabry-Pérot interferometers are widely used as narrowband spectral filters for wavelength discrimination, where the passband wavelength is determined by the optical cavity spacing between two highly reflective Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBRs) and the passband is swept across wavelength ranges by varying that spacing. In the infrared spectral range, such devices are commonly fabricated using...

721. Engineering strong mid-infrared absorption in graphene at low Fermi energy by coupling to nanostructured SiC

Hugh Paynter (Monash University)

10/12/2026, 14:45

COMMAD - Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices

Contributed Oral

Graphene-based thermoradiative energy harvesting in the mid-infrared relies on maximising the photothermoelectric (PTE) response, which requires operation at a low Fermi energy ($E_F$). This creates a fundamental trade-off: conventional Fabry-Perot (FP) plasmonic resonances provide strong, spectrally selective absorption but require patterned graphene or a high $E_F$, reducing PTE efficiency....

743. A study on switching cycles of MEMS-based optical filters for infrared spectroscopy

Dr Gurpreet Singh Gill (The University of Western Australia)

10/12/2026, 15:00

COMMAD - Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices

Contributed Oral

Abstract: Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are of great interest for applications that require field-portability due to their small size, weight, power and cost (SWP+C). Similarly, MEMS-based Fabry–Pérot filters (FPFs) are of great interest for developing micro-spectrometers for numerous remote-sensing spectroscopy and imaging applications, thereby overcoming the non-portability...

583. Geometry-engineered polarization control in MEMS-integrated spectrally tunable LWIR extraordinary optical transmission filters

Oleg Bannik

10/12/2026, 15:15

COMMAD - Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices

Contributed Oral

Tunable long-wave infrared (LWIR) optical filters are key enabling components for compact multispectral and polarization-sensitive thermal imaging systems. Here, we demonstrate geometry-driven polarization engineering in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-integrated extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) filters based on a dual-membrane plasmonic metamaterial platform. Resonant EOT modes...