New plastic technology set to revolutionise fibre optics

Traditionally made of glass or silica, optical fibres are expensive to produce, fragile and not very flexible - which limits their application.

But three researchers, based at the University of Sydney's Optical Fibre Technology Centre (OFTC), found a way to make polymer optical fibres that can perform competitively with silica while being far easier and cheaper to make.

Dr Martijn van Eijkelenborg, Dr Maryanne Large and PhD student Alexander Argyros on Monday received this year's Australasian Science Prize for their work over the past five years.

"What we have done is to change the material (of the optical fibres)," Dr Large said on Monday.

"I think what's really significant about our work is we've actually found a kind of cheap way of making this gourmet fibre and mass producing it."

Optical fibres are thin rods of glass which reflect and carry light and are wrapped in a low density plastic and cabling.

They are used widely in communications, both in computer networks as a fast internet connection source and in telecommunications.

Also used as an instrument in micro surgery, they can project images from inside the body and help surgeons see in hard to reach places.

Making plastic fibre optics was no easy task due to the material's lack of transparency and reflection rate.

It also had a higher light absorption index than glass.

But the team used a microstructured pattern around an air core to overcome the problem.

A pattern of concentric rings around the core reflects light of particular frequencies back so it cannot escape the core.

As the light travels through air rather than the polymer, the problem of the transparency of the polymer is overcome.

The University of Sydney team did not originate the idea of using microstructured fibres to guide light, but they were the first to use it on plastic.

Dr Large said she hoped to see the polymer fibre optics commercialised in the next few years.

"We have had very serious interest from a number of major companies, actually, so I would certainly hope in the timescale of a few years we would have something commercialised," she said.

The Australasian Science Prize, first established in 2000, is awarded by the Australasian Science magazine, which is published monthly, to recognise outstanding research by an individual or small group.