The Photonics and Optical Communications Group (POCG) at UNSW was started in the 1970’s with the work of Proff. Karbowiak and Chu on optical wave propagation and refractive index profiling. Today the group’s efforts fall mostly within the fields of fibre gratings used for optical sensors, and polymer photonic devices.

POCG has 9 research laboratories and 2 teaching laboratories in the School of Electrical Engineering. Two main laboratories house the fibre manufacturing facilities and various research experiments. Another smaller laboratory houses the optical fibre amplifier and fibre laser research equipment. Another laboratory houses the MOPO laser that has a wide wavelength tuning range from 400nm to 2000nm. Three laboratories are for measurement purposes. In addition, the Group has the Optical Planar Waveguide Facility locating at the Semiconductor Nanofabrication Facility UNSW, which provides an Australian capability for the fabrication of advanced silica-based planar optical waveguide devices and their integration with microelectronics by Hollow Cathode Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (HC-PECVD) technology.