
Giuseppe Strangi views a metalens array
Case Western Reserve scientists, collaborators at Harvard and Italian university Unical, aim to ‘revolutionize optics’ by combining nanostructured metasurfaces with liquid crystal technology
For more than 500 years, humans have mastered the art of refracting light by shaping glass into lenses, then bending or combining those lenses to amplify and clarify images either close-up and far-off.
But in the last decade or so, a group led by scientist Federico Capasso at Harvard University has begun to transform the field of optics by engineering flat optics metasurfaces, employing an array of millions of tiny microscopically thin and transparent quartz pillars to diffract and mold the flow of light in much the same way as a glass lens, but without the aberrations that naturally limit the glass.
The technology was selected as among the Top 10 Emerging Technologies by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2019, which remarked that these increasingly smaller, clearer lenses would soon begin to be seen in camera phones, sensors, optical-fiber lines and medical-imaging devices, such as endoscopes.
“Making the lenses used by mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices smaller has been beyond the capabilities of traditional glass cutting and glass curving techniques,” according to the WEF. “…These tiny, thin, flat lenses could replace existing bulky glass lenses and allow further miniaturization in sensors and medical imaging devices.”
Making metalenses ‘reconfigurable’
Now, Case Western Reserve University physics professor Giuseppe Strangi and collaborators at Harvard have taken a step toward making these “metalenses” even more useful—by making them reconfigurable.
They did this by harnessing nanoscale forces to infiltrate liquid crystals between those microscopic pillars, allowing them to shape and diffract the light in completely new ways—“tuning” the focusing power, Strangi said.
Liquid crystals are especially useful because can be manipulated thermally, electrically, magnetically or optically, which creates the potential for the flexible or reconfigurable lenses.
“We believe that this holds the promise to revolutionize optics as we know it since the 16th century,” said Strangi, whose Nanoplasm Lab at Case Western Reserve investigates “extreme optics” and the “interaction of light and matter at nanoscale,” among other matters.
Until recently, once a glass lens was shaped into a rigid curve, it could only bend the light in one way, unless combined with other lenses or physically moved, Strangi said.
Metalenses changed that, since they allow to engineer the wavefront by controlling phase, amplitude and polarization of the light.
Now, by controlling the liquid crystal, the researchers have been able move these new class of metalenses towards new scientific and technological endeavors to generate reconfigurable structured light .
“This is just the first step, but there are many possibilities for using these lenses, and we have already been contacted by companies interested in this technology,” Strangi said.
The paper announcing the breakthrough was published in early August by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Strangi collaborated with several other researchers in the United States and Europe, including fellow Case Western Reserve researchers Andrew Lininger and Jonathan Boyd; Giovanna Palermo of Universita’ della Calabria in Italy; and Capasso, Alexander Zhu and Joon-Suh Park of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.
Lininger said part of the problem with current applications of metasurfaces is that their shape is fixed at the point of production, but “by enabling reconfigurability in the metasurface, these limitations can be overcome.”
Capasso, who pioneered the flat optics research field and in 2014 first published research on metalenses, credited Strangi for the idea to infiltrate the metalenses with liquid crystals and said this innovation represents a step toward even bigger things.
“Our ability to reproducibly infiltrate with liquid crystals state-of-the art metalenses made of over 150 million nanoscale diameter glass pillars and to significantly change their focusing properties is a portent of the exciting science and technology I expect to come out of reconfigurable flat optics in the future,” Capasso said.
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Reconfigurable flat optics
- Doughnut-shaped laser used to create an optical fibre out of air
A doughnut-shaped laser was ysed to create a 45-metre-long optical fibre out of air and a pulse of light was then sent through it. The technology could eventually be used to detect radioactive ...
- You have the eyes of a hawk if you can spot the owl hidden in this optical illusion in just four seconds
AN OPTICAL illusion has left punters scratching their heads after trying to spot a hidden owl in just four seconds. The brain teaser has gone viral online leaving a lot of viewers perplexed.
- Optical illusion gives rare green comet an 'anti-tail' that seemingly defies physics
C/2022 E3 (ZTF), a comet that has recently made headlines as it flies closer to Earth, briefly developed an ethereal third tail thanks to a weird optical illusion. A rare green comet, which has ...
- Combining classical and quantum optics achieves super-resolution imaging
Ever since the first optical microscopes were invented in the 17th century, scientists have pushed for new ways to see more things more clearly, at smaller scales and deeper depths. Randy Bartels, ...
- Researchers propose combining classical and quantum optics for super-resolution imaging
Ever since the first optical microscopes were invented in the 17th century, scientists have pushed for new ways to see more things more clearly, at smaller scales and deeper depths. Randy Bartels ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Reconfigurable flat optics
[google_news title=”” keyword=”reconfigurable flat optics” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Flat optics
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs. Google Pixel 7 Pro: Super-size your smartphone experience
Google's Pixel 7 Pro won't cost as much as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, yet it's still one of the best flagship Android phones you can buy. It has a gorgeous design, smooth software, and ...
- The Complete Timeline of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Relationship
If there's any couple in the family who offers that, it's Prince William and Kate Middleton. William and Kate have had what appears on the outside to be a bit of a fairytale romance, from the ...
- Logitech is Trying to Reinvent Video Calls Using an Optical Illusion
Project Ghost, a new telepresence concept Logitech is building with Steelcase, joins Google's Project Sarline in trying to bring more presence to video calls.
- Abertis parks debut SLB flat to fair value
Abertis Infraestructuras, the Spanish toll roads group, received thumping demand for its debut sustainability-linked bond on Tuesday, but bankers remain unconvinced about how much the structure helped ...
- Flat Bottom Silos Market Size 2023 With Far-Reaching Scope To Cover All The Potential Segments Selection Every Stakeholder
Flat Bottom Silos Market 2023 with 116 Pages Report and enhance with extents shares into sub-counties are covered in ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Flat optics
[google_news title=”” keyword=”flat optics” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]