DrAndrew Ross-Adams

I am a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Physics, working within the Sydney Astrophotonic Instrumentation Labs (SAIL). My work sits at the intersection of photonics and astronomy, and centres on a device called a photonic lantern: an optical component which solves a problem astronomers have lived with for decades. Starlight is scrambled by the atmosphere on its way to the telescope, yet the most precise instruments we build, such as high-resolution spectrographs, work best when fed a stable single-mode input. The photonic lantern elegantly unscrambles the light in order to bridge that gap. The same physics applies to free-space laser communications, where atmospheric turbulence distorts the beam and limits achievable bandwidth.

My contribution is principally on the experimental side: designing, fabricating, characterising and packaging these devices to a standard that survives the move from the optical bench to the telescope. I fabricated and packaged and charactersied the photonic lantern for the HISPEC isntrument, a next-generation spectrograph being commissioned at the W. M. Keck Observatory in collaboration with Caltech. 

Prior to my time at The University of Sydney, I worked for many years as part of the enabling team at an Integrated Photonics startup called Modular Photonics, catering to the telecommunications and hyperscale data centre industries. During my time here I was a joint recipient of the NSW Engineering Excellence Award. I undertook my PhD at Macquarie University, specialising 3D integrated photonics based on Ultrafast Laser Inscription. This entailed developing recipies for better optical waveguides, allowing a 2-4x increases in optical chip miniaturisation, a vital capability for supporting efficient coupling to silicon photonics in the ongoing AI boom.