Leading lights head for Australia

Light, diffraction. Photo by Anthony Dodd

The world’s top scientists in laser research, from super-fast data transfer and blue-sky computing to designing invisible cloaks, will converge on the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre this Sunday for the largest optics research conference to be held in Australia and the southern hemisphere.

The IQEC/CLEO Pacific Rim 2011 conference, which incorporates the International Quantum Electronics Conference and the Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, will feature nearly 1000 researchers discussing their latest findings.

Conference General Chair Professor Ken Baldwin from The Australian National University (ANU) said the event would kick off on Sunday with a series of workshops on exciting leading-edge topics including the latest technology for the National Broadband Network, hot areas in quantum computing, and ‘cloaking’.

‘Making objects invisible is a dream that has been played out in countless storybooks and movies for a lot longer than Harry Potter has been around. But recently researchers have shown that ‘cloaking’ is not just a dream but a real possibility through the development of new artificial metamaterials,’ Professor Baldwin said.

‘A surge of recent activities has led to a number of designs for electromagnetic cloaks, operating at single frequency or hiding objects ’under the carpet’. The Conference will host a workshop with the aim of sparking discussion on the questions and possibilities of optical metamaterials for cloaking applications.’

‘The Federal Government’s high-profile NBN project will no doubt be a major focus of Sunday’s workshop on the current status of optical fiber capacity in relation to the theoretical ’Shannon limit? and the expected data traffic growth in future optical networks.’

In another workshop, the burgeoning field of quantum technology development will be explored where there are several competing designs to build the world’s first quantum computers, but the jury is still out on which is the optimum choice to invest in.

‘Advocates of a number of schemes will present their cases and their latest results to an audience of experts, which promises to be a colourful and insightful debate,’ Professor Baldwin said.

‘First proposed in the 1990s, quantum computing is potentially revolutionary, and an ideal quantum computer could solve problems that are unsolvable on a standard computer like complex cryptographic schemes, which would cause chaos for electronic banking systems and secure.

‘However, they are exceedingly difficult to build, and despite plenty of effort, to date no research team has achieved anything more than the most basic demonstrations. But they hold such fantastic promise that it is a huge research area with backing from defence and other organisations interested in secure information.’

For a copy of the program and visit http://www.iqec-cleopr2011.com/