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Shaping light with a Smartlens
In a study recently published in Nature Photonics, [...] researchers demonstrate an adjustable technique to manipulate light without any mechanical movement. In this approach, coined Smartlens, a current is passed through a well-optimized micrometer-scale resistor, and the heating locally changes the optical properties of the transparent polymer plate holding the resistor.
In much the same way as a mirage bends light passing through hot air to create illusions of distant lakes, this microscale hot region is able to deviate light. Within milliseconds, a simple slab of polymer can be turned into a lens and back: small, micrometer-scale Smartlenses heat up and cool down quickly and with minimal power consumption. They can even be fabricated in arrays, and the authors show that several objects located at very different distances can be brought into focus within the same image by activating the Smartlenses located in front of each of them, even if the scene is in colours.
By modelling the diffusion of heat and the propagation of light and using algorithms inspired by the laws of natural selection the authors show they can go way beyond simple lenses: a properly engineered resistor can shape light with a very high level of control and achieve a wide variety of optical functions. For instance, if the right resistor is imprinted on it, a piece of polymer could be activated or deactivated at will to generate a given "freeform" and correct specific defects in our eyesight, or the aberrations of an optical instrument.
Tunable and free-form planar optics[$], Nature photonics (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-019-0486-3)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 29 2019, @07:43AM
First thing: Maybe some of us, the few, the Proud, the Astronomers, are trying to look at stuff in the night sky. Shield your lights, or, just turn them off. The Goblins that were going to get you without the lights are still going to get you, and Thieves are always more efficient when they can see what they are doing. So cut the lights, for Astronomy, and for the TMT.
Interestingly, the island of Hawaii has already undertaken light-pollution mitigation projects, to protect the valuable cultural asset that is Mauna Kea. Enough of the Samoans protesting science on islands that are not their own! (Note: Samoa has tiny mountains. Aquaman is not real. The Rock, well, not his kuleana. So we want adaptive optics, but you see where this might be going.