Related papers: Flat Magic Window
Optical fields can induce forces between microscopic objects, thus giving rise to new structures of matter. We study theoretically these optical forces between two spheres, either isolated in water, or in presence of a flat dielectric…
A simple optical lens plays an important role for exploring the microscopic world in science and technology by refracting light with tailored spatially varying refractive index. Recent advancements in nanotechnology enable novel lenses,…
Prototype optical microscopes, built to pursue developments in advanced imaging techniques, need specific optomechanical constructions: preferably with high flexibility in the elements arrangement, easy access to the optical paths,…
Excitations of three-dimensional spin glasses are computed numerically. We find that one can flip a finite fraction of an LxLxL lattice with an O(1) energy cost, confirming the mean field picture of a non-trivial spin overlap distribution…
Optical beams with a new and distinctive type of helicity have become the subject of much recent interest. While circularly polarised light comprises photons with spin angular momentum, these optically engineered 'twisted beams' (optical…
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light has recently attracted a growing interest as a new degree of freedom in order to increase the information capacity of today optical networks both for free-space and optical fiber transmission.…
Deformable Mirrors (DMs) have wide applications ranging from astronomical imaging to laser communications and vision science. However, they often require bulky multi-channel cables for delivering high power to their drive actuators. A low…
We discuss a new technology that promises large inexpensive mirrors. We argue that it should be possible to tilt a rotating viscous liquid by perhaps as much as a few tens of degrees. The tilted liquid parabolic surface is used as the…
Orbifolds are a modern mathematical concept that arises in the research of hyperbolic geometry with applications in computer graphics and visualization. In this paper, we make use of rooms with mirrors as the visual metaphor for orbifolds.…
The trend towards ever larger telescopes and more advanced adaptive optics systems is driving the need for deformable mirrors with a large number of low cost actuators. Liquid mirrors have long been recognized a potential low cost…
An Adaptive Spiral Phase Plate (ASPP) based on liquid crystal (LC) and the transmission electrode technique is theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. This ASPP design enables the generation of high-quality optical vortices with…
The successful development and optimisation of optically-driven micromachines will be greatly enhanced by the ability to computationally model the optical forces and torques applied to such devices. In principle, this can be done by…
Linear birefringence, as implemented in wave plates, is a natural way to control the state of polarization of light. We report on a general method for designing miniature planar wave plates using surface plasmons. The resonant optical…
Conceptual studies and numerical simulations are performed for imaging devices that transform a near-field pattern into magnified far-zone images and are based on high-order spatial transformation in cylindrical domains. A lens translating…
The degree of optical spatial coherence -a fundamental property of light that describes the mutual correlations between fluctuating electromagnetic fields- has proven challenging to control at the micrometer scale. Here we employ surface…
Optical diodes controlling the flow of light are of principal significance for optical information processing 1. They transmit light from an input to an output, but not in reverse direction. This breaking of time reversal symmetry is…
Diffractive lenses fabricated by lithographic methods are one of the most popular image forming optics in the x-ray regime. Most commonly, binary diffractive optics, such as Fresnel zone plates are used due to their ability to focus at high…
Liquid crystals allow for the real-time control of the polarization of light. We describe and provide some experimental examples of the types of general polarization transformations, including universal polarization transformations, that…
We revisit the gravitational lensing phenomenon using a new visualization technique. It consists in projecting the observers sky into the source plane, what gives rise to a folded and stretched surface. This provides a clear graphical tool…
An opalic plasmonic sample, constituted by a hexagonal arrangement of metallized silica spheres, presents remarkable optical properties due to the mixing of periodic arrangement and singularities at the sphere touching points. It is…