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Applied Physics and Photonics (TONA)

In 2004 a special type of government funding gave birth to the Industrial Research Fund (IOF – Industrieel Onderzoeksfonds).

This funding supports the IOF knowledge centers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in carrying out outstanding strategic research and further developing new application-oriented inventions with economic potential. The first priority of the IOF funds is the further establishment of a portfolio of potentially applicable and transferable know-how with economic and societal value.

Keywords

  • photons
  • photonics engineering
  • micro-optics
  • datacommunication
  • biophotonics
  • Bragg-Grating-enhanced Photonic Crystal Fibres (BG-PCFs)
  • nonlinear optics
  • radiation
  • micro-lasers

Main objectives

Photonics, the "Science-and-Technology-to-Harness-Light", is a discipline that involves fundamental research on photons, on light-matter interactions, and on the development of novel technologies and applications based on the unique properties of light. Research at TONA is structured in 7 research teams, each lead by a senior researcher. The 7 teams, each about 3 to 6 researchers strong, are the optical design team, the instrumentation and metrology team, the micro-optics fabrication team, the micro-laser team, the optical interconnect team, the micro-optical fibre sensor team, and the team for photonics in radiation and space environments.

Strategic and applied research

Today TONA is one of the leading groups in the fascinating world of micro-photonics: a world and work area with numerous research challenges and countless valorisation opportunities. Microphotonics is a generic technology that allows the manipulation of light and the management of photons with micron and submicron scale structures, components and devices.

Micro-photonics is recognized as the key-link between optics and nano-electronics, the two dominant information technologies in tomorrow’s society.

Micro-photonics enables a wealth of industrial applications in the domains of :

  • information processing
  • data storage
  • display and printing technology
  • data- and tele-communications
  • health care and medicine
  • biotechnology
  • defence and security
  • automobile
  • lighting
  • sensing and measurement and many more.

Micro-photonic processing technologies are currently being adapted to a wide variety of specialty optical materials such as :

  • plastics
  • polymers
  • semiconductors
  • sol-gels
  • and doped glasses.

The application of these modified materials permits to widen the field of photonic functionalities to virtually any region of the optical spectrum and beyond, such that a wealth of novel optical and photonic applications can be realized. At the same time microphotonic processing technologies are being made compatible with scalable industrial mass manufacturing and replication techniques.

As such, micro-optic technologies can enhance the competitiveness of SMEs and large-scale companies through low-cost fabrication of photonic-based products, fully in line with the global trend of extreme micro miniaturization. This ensures an attractive route for the transfer of knowledge and technological knowhow from university to industry, and enables the durable embedding of novel photonic functionalities in a myriad of novel products.

Equipment & Infrastructure

The research teams within TONA have access to 5 distinct photonic research and technology platforms:

  • the general photonics laboratories platform, which consists of photonics research labs which feature state-of-the-art highprecision optical and opto-mechanical components, optoelectronic and photonic measurement equipment, lasers, and a variety of high-end optical sources
  • a broad spectral laser system, which consists of a combination of high-end scientific-grade laser sources
  • a powerful computer cluster equipped with a variety of professional modeling software to support optical modeling and photonic design efforts
  • a unique rapid prototyping technology for the fabrication of high aspect ratio plastic micro-optical components, based on Deep Proton Writing: it is set up around TONA’s large-scale ion accelerator facility, the same facility is used to investigate the behaviour of optical materials and microphotonic components in radiation environments
  • the micro-optical measurement and nano-instrumentation facility, which hosts a unique collection of high-end instrumentation for the quantitative characterization of photonic micro- and nano-components and structures, under clean room conditions

Today TONA can make use of the following unique measurement instruments all accomodated in a class 100 cleanroom to characterize optical materials and photonic demonstrators:

  • Wyko non-contact optical profilometer for measuring the geometrical characteristics and surface roughnesses of microoptical and micro-mechanical components
  • Atomic force microscope for measuring surface roughnesses and geometrical dimensions of nano- and micro-structures
  • Dektak stylus profilometer for determining geometrical characteristics and surface roughnesses of micro-optical and micro-mechanical components
  • Twyman-Green interferometer for measuring the sphericity and the radius of curvature of microlenses
  • Mach-Zehnder interferometer for the optical characterization of microlenses
  • Carl Zeiss microscopes for visual inspection of micro-optical components
  • Scatterometer for measuring the light scattering profile in reflection and transmission
  • Instrumentation for optical fiber characterization (optical spectrumanalyzer, polarisation analyzer, tunable lasers ...)
  • Integrating sphere and optical spectrum analyzer for chracterizing optical sources.

Research collaboration

Intra-university

  • Chemical Engineering Techniques
  • Applied Mechanics
  • Metallurgy
  • Stomatology
  • Art Science and Archeology
  • Immunology and Microbiology
  • Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science
  • Chemistry Department.

Inter-university & research centers

  • Photonics Integration and Packaging Group of the UGent, Interuniversity Attraction Pole ‘Photonics@be’ (UGent - Université Libre de Bruxelles - Faculté Polytechnique de Mons).
  • At the international level TONA has privileged collaborations with Stanford University and with the Sandia National Laboratories.
  • Currently TONA is expanding its network of strategic partners by exploring collaborative research opportunities with photonic research institutes or networks in South Korea, in Australia, in Canada, the US and Japan.

Industrial partners

  • Fujitsu
  • Polish Telecom
  • NIPPON Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (NTT)
  • Punch Graphix International
  • Umicore
  • Anteryon
  • Tyco Int.
  • Barco
  • Melexis
  • Agfa
  • Intel
  • Philips
  • ICOS
  • FOS&S.

Networks

At the European level TONA is coordinating a Network of Excellence in Micro-Optics and is as such structuring and integrating the fragmented landscape of micro-optics in intensive collaboration with 30 European laboratories. It also is a vice-coordinator of the Network of Excellence on Bhophotonics "Photonics for Life" .

Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Faculty of Engineering
Pleinlaan 2 – B-1050 Brussels – Belgium
[W] www.vub.ac.be/TONA
[T] +32 (0)2 629 34 53
[F] +32 (0)2 629 34 50
Head: Hugo THIIENPONT
[E] hthienpo@vub.ac.be
Scientific contact: Heidi OTTEVAERE
[T] +32 (0)2 629 34 51
[E] hottevaere@tona.vub.ac.be
Group TONA: 50 team members