Related papers: Why optics needs thickness
Lens design uses a calculation of the lens' surfaces that permit to obtain an image from a given object. A set of general rules and laws permits to calculate the essential points of the optical system such as distances, thickness, pupils,…
Centuries of effort to improve imaging has focused on perfecting and combining lenses to obtain better optical performance and new functionalities. The arrival of nanotechnology has brought to this effort engineered surfaces called…
I explain what is, what is not, and what is only sort of superresolution microscopy. I discuss optical resolution, first in terms of diffraction theory, then in terms of linear systems theory, and finally in terms of techniques that use…
The numerical aperture (NA) of a lens determines its ability to focus light and its resolving capability. Having a large NA is a very desirable quality for applications requiring small light-matter interaction volumes or large angular…
Microscopes and various forms of interferometers have been used for decades in optical metrology of objects that are typically larger than the wavelength of light {\lambda}. However, metrology of subwavelength objects was deemed impossible…
We firstly revisit the importance, naturalness and limitations of the so-called optical metrics for describing the propagation of light rays in the limit of geometric optics. We then exemplify their flexibility and nontriviality in some…
Metalenses -- flat lenses made with optical metasurfaces -- promise to enable thinner, cheaper, and better imaging systems. Achieving a sufficient angular field of view (FOV) is crucial toward that goal and requires a tailored…
In nanofabrication, just as in any other craft, the scale of spatial details is limited by the dimensions of the tool at hand. For example, the smallest details for direct laser writing with far-field light are set by the diffraction limit,…
A nonlocal theory of optical real image formation is developed from the basic quantum physics linked to an optical real image formation apparatus. Optical real images are formed by photons. Photons are nonlocal quantum objects that exhibit…
The paper establishes explicit lower bounds for the lattice cell size of periodic structures (metamaterials and photonic crystals) capable of supporting backward waves and producing negative refraction. At optical frequencies, this result…
We describe several projects addressing the growth of galaxies and massive black holes, for which adaptive optics is mandatory to reach high spatial resolution but is also a challenge due to the lack of guide stars and long integrations. In…
Invisibility or cloaking has captured human's imagination for many years. With the recent advancement of metamaterials, several theoretical proposals show cloaking of objects is possible, however, so far there is a lack of an experimental…
The optical matrix formalism is applied to find parameters such as focal distance, back and front focal points, principal planes, and the equation relating object and image distances for a thick spherical lens immerse in air. Then, the…
The question is considered about possibility of overcoming diffraction limit at device, named superlens. This device is a flat slab, executed from material with index of refraction n,equal n=-1. It is shown, what this device really can…
An invisibility device should guide light around an object as if nothing were there, regardless where the light comes from. Ideal invisibility devices are impossible due to the wave nature of light. This paper develops a general recipe for…
Imaging with sub-wavelength resolution using a lens formed by periodic metal-dielectric layered structure is demonstrated. The lens operates in canalization regime as a transmission device and it does not involve negative refraction and…
Deep optics has emerged as a promising approach by co-designing optical elements with deep learning algorithms. However, current research typically overlooks the analysis and optimization of manufacturing and assembly tolerances. This…
The surface of metal, glass and plastic objects is often characterized by microscopic scratches caused by manufacturing and/or wear. A closer look onto such scratches reveals iridescent colors with a complex dependency on viewing and…
Essentially, the idea of improving the resolution of a given imaging system is to enhance its information capacity represented usually by the temporal-bandwidth (or, spatial-spectrum) product. This letter introduces the concept of…
The miniaturization of current image sensors is largely limited by the volume of the optical elements. Using a sub-wavelength patterned quasi-periodic structure, also known as a metasurface, one can build planar optical elements based on…