Optical measurement instruments—the kind used to check the precision of manufactured parts or guide surgical tools—are currently bulky, heavy, and sensitive to vibration, which keeps them locked in stable labs. This programme aims to shrink them down to the size of a fibre-optic tip using nanophotonics, the science of controlling light with structures smaller than its wavelength. The problem is straightforward: as manufacturing moves toward smart, autonomous "Industry 4.0" factories, you cannot fit a lab-sized interferometer onto a robot arm or into a diamond-turning machine. The researchers will replace stacks of conventional lenses and mirrors with single, patterned surfaces that bend light just as precisely but weigh almost nothing. They also propose two specific new tools: an "optical ruler" that could measure displacements with sub-nanometre precision from the end of an optical fibre, and a method to image nanometre-scale vibrations in real time inside a scanning electron microscope. If successful, the work would let manufacturers measure components during production rather than after, reducing waste and improving quality. The same miniaturised optics could also shrink instruments for space missions, surgical guidance, and robotic inspection. The research is applied, not fundamental—it takes existing nanophotonics discoveries and turns them into working metrology tools.
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Optical metrology plays a vital role in an astonishing array of important research areas and applications, from basic science discovery to material processing, medicine, healthcare, energy, manufacturing and engineering. Optical metrology instruments are normally large, heavy structures that require a well-stabilised environment to maintain accuracy, stability and functionality. These physical and functional features prevent optical metrology from moving into future smart and autonomous applications across many sectors. The proposed programme aims to challenge fundamental barriers to the use of optical measurement techniques in highly integrated, smart and autonomous 'Industry 4.0' metrology applications and emerging nanotechnologies, by establishing a unique, world-leading research collaboration in the UK that brings together advanced metrology and nanotechnology. It will translate the latest advances in nanophotonics, plasmonics and metamaterials research, in which the UK has played an internationally-leading role, into metrological applications. This will have a transformational impact on optical metrology by enabling cheaper, smarter and much more compact solutions. Research will be channelled through three complementary streams: 1. Nanophotonics-enabled components for metrology. This strand of the programme will draw on the wealth of recent fundamental developments in nanophotonics, for example, the fact that surfaces patterned with subwavelength-sized features can offer exquisite control over the wavefront of propagating light. Replacing one (or several) bulky element(s) with a single surface that carries out the same (combined) function offers hugely significant savings in size and weight, complexity and robustness (e.g. against misalignment), and opportunity to develop new measurement functionalities and instrumental configurations that are not otherwise possible. 2. Novel metrology concepts for nanotechnology. We will develop two ground-breaking ideas for metrological technologies: (1) The "optical ruler", which allows for non-contact displacement measurements with potentially sub-nm resolution using a sensor that could ultimately be manufactured on the tip of an optical fibre; (2) An approach to dynamic "nano-motion imaging" based upon the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) platform, to spatially map high-frequency nano- to picometre amplitude movement. 3. Novel metrology tools for manufacturing and nanotechnology. Using the nanophotonic components and concepts described above, we will develop novel metrology tools and measurement techniques to perform in real-world, as opposed to laboratory, conditions. Target applications will include, for example, surface/geometric metrologies compatible with manufacturing tools such as diamond turning machines and multi-axis (sub-) nanometric displacement encoding for translation stages. This programme will bring together the expertise of world-leading research groups in metrology and nanophotonics, with key industrial project partners including Renishaw and Taylor Hobson. Together, we aim to address long-standing challenges for optical metrology and to develop new, disruptive metrological technologies. These advances will be vital to support the high-value manufacturing sector in the UK. The impact of this work, however, will be felt across a far broader range of disciplines, as size and weight are significant issues in, for example, instrumentation for space science, optical instrumentation for surgical applications, and robotic arm-mounted instruments.
Eric Plum (Co-Investigator)Haydn Martin (Co-Investigator)Nikolay Zheludev (Co-Investigator)Paul Scott (Co-Investigator)Xiangqian Jiang (Principal Investigator)
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