Date: 22 July 2025 Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) are pioneering miniaturised optical systems set to underpin technologies of the future. Researcher in a laboratory at the RMIT node of TMOS. Image credit: Supplied. Traditional optics involves using lenses to manipulate light. The idea is that differently shapes and materials of lenses can reflect, refract, and transmit light in different ways. This technology has revolutionised instant communication, enabled us to observe microscopic organisms, and even allowed us to take selfies with our phones. However, there is a limit to how small traditional optical lenses can get. According to Professor Dragomir Neshev, the Director of the Centre, this constrains progress because devices cannot be made any smaller. He says meta-optics will help us overcome this challenge. Like traditional optics, meta-optical systems also manipulate light, but they do so at a much smaller scale. They use meta-surfaces made up of millions of nanostructures of varying shapes and sizes, that allow for light generation, manipulation and detection not possible with traditional lenses. Researcher with laser at the University of Melbourne node of TMOS. Image credit: Supplied. Meta-optical systems, first and foremost, reduce bulk. In fact, one of the first applications the Centre explored was replacing the bulky lenses we currently see on mobile phones. This isn’t just about thinner phones – meta-optical systems will make it easier and less expensive to produce complex technologies, like miniaturised sensors that can be used to detect diseases early. They will also make quantum communication possible on a mass scale. Currently, this technology – which offers ultra-secure ways of transmitting information – requires clean rooms and cryogenic cooling. With the use of meta-optics, the complexity of these systems can be reduced such that they can operate at room temperature. Professor Neshev’s favourite application, he says, is definitely the augmented reality glasses the Centre is working on. ‘Everybody has seen science fiction movies with glasses that project things. I feel like we are actually very close to this science fiction.’ To make such large ambitions come to life, the Centre brings together 142 researchers – Chief Investigators, Partner Investigators, Associate Investigators, postdoctoral fellows and PhD students – and 14 professional staff members, who are spread across 5 Australian universities. There are also 18 international partners. Professor Neshev says the Centre has also engaged over 100 different companies, including partnerships which are looking to embed the Centre’s technological achievements into new augmented reality glasses. Postdoctoral researchers at the Australian National University node of TMOS. Image credit: Supplied. Industry partnerships are integral to the success of the Centre’s research. It’s important, says Professor Neshev, to work with them to ensure the relevance of scientific output. In fact, augmented reality was not an application the Centre was initially expecting to explore. ‘What we’ve seen in the last couple of years is big companies have invested billions of dollars into these technologies.’ The Centre is also currently partnering with a company to develop devices which can monitor driver fatigue. The company, says Professor Neshev, ‘came to us and said they need to squeeze all these tiny elements that can detect if the driver is fatigued or not…and they need to do this with very little space, which they realised quickly is not possible in any conventional way.’ From the very beginning, Professor Neshev understood that the Centre had big aims. It required developing new materials as well as fabrication processes for these materials. It also required experts who could put various elements together to create applications. Centre Director Professor Dragomir Neshev in the laboratory. Image credit: Supplied. When putting together the application grant, he says ‘I thought we needed a team of multidisciplinary expertise between material scientists, fundamental physicists, and applied engineers, to realise the full potential of this concept. And indeed, we are very happy that we were able to do that under this Centre of Excellence.’ Professor Neshev says his interest in science started at a young age. Initially, he was interested in space, then lasers, and then decided he wanted to work on something nobody had done before. He credits two consecutive fellowships from the Australian Research Council early in his career for allowing him to ‘pursue this childhood dream.’ ‘Now, I’m humbled but also very proud to lead this Centre of Excellence,’ he says, noting it is his biggest career achievement. ‘I think everybody in the entire Centre works really well as a body with a joint mission and joint vision to deliver what we have put in our plans, and it’s just a pleasure to lead such a Centre. I take this as my biggest achievement.’ To learn more, please visit the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems' website.