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Since its emergence two decades ago, astrophotonics has found broad application in scientific instruments at many institutions worldwide. The case for astrophotonics becomes more compelling as telescopes push for AO-assisted,…
Microlensing promises to be a powerful tool for studying distant galaxies and quasars. As the data and models improve, there are systematic effects that need to be explored. Quasar continuum and broad-line regions may respond differently to…
Adaptive optics is a strategy to compensate for sample-induced aberrations in microscopy applications. Generally, it requires the presence of "guide stars" in the sample to serve as localized reference targets. We describe an implementation…
Humankind has long endeavored to control the propagation direction of light. Since time immemorial, shades, lenses and mirrors have been used to control the flow of light. In modern society, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, the…
We present a new technique - photon folding - for imaging in non-focusing telescopes. Motivated by the epoch-folding method in timing analysis, the photon folding technique directly provides the statistical significance of signals in…
Plenoptic cameras use arrays of micro-lenses to capture multiple views of the same scene in a single compound image. They enable refocusing on different planes and depth estimation. However, until now, all types of plenoptic computational…
Freeform optics aims to expand the toolkit of optical elements by allowing for more complex phase geometries beyond rotational symmetry. Complex, asymmetric curvatures are employed to enhance the performance of optical components while…
Many adaptive optics systems operate by measuring the distortion of the wavefront in one wavelength range and performing the scientific observations in a second, different wavelength range. One common technique is to measure wavefront…
Three-dimensional elements, with refractive index distribution structured at sub-wavelength scale, provide an expansive optical design space that can be harnessed for demonstrating multi-functional free-space optical devices. Here we…
Optical phase-space functions describe spatial and angular information simultaneously; examples include light fields in ray optics and Wigner functions in wave optics. Measurement of phase-space enables digital refocusing, aberration…
High-throughput 2D and 3D scanning electron microscopy, which relies on automation and dependable control algorithms, requires high image quality with minimal human intervention. Classical focus and astigmatism correction algorithms attempt…
Spectroscopic photoemission microscopy is a well-established method to investigate the electronic structure of surfaces. In modern photoemission microscopes the electron optics allows imaging of the image plane, momentum plane, or…
Nonlinear optical processes are used in biological microscopy to surpass the diffraction limit on resolution, image deeper into brain tissues, and identify biomolecules without exogenous labels. These techniques typically require high…
Lenses are crucial to light-enabled technologies. Conventional lenses have been perfected to achieve near-diffraction-limited resolution and minimal chromatic aberrations. However, such lenses are bulky and cannot focus light into a hotspot…
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-milliarcsec (sub-mas) angular resolution, UV-Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the…
The fast-growing field of soft matter research requires increasingly sophisticated tools for experimental studies. One of the oldest and most widely used tools to study soft matter systems is optical microscopy. Recent advances in optical…
Using the 3XMM catalogue of serendipitous X-ray sources, and the SDSS-DR9 spectroscopic catalogue, we have obtained a new sample of X-ray selected narrow emission line galaxies. The standard optical diagnostic diagram and selection by hard…
The dark-field signal uncovers details beyond conventional X-ray attenuation contrast, which is especially valuable for material sciences. In particular, dark-field techniques are able to reveal structures beyond the spatial resolution of a…
An optical broadband angular selective filter achieved by stacking of one-dimensional photonic crystals has promising potential in various applications. In this report, we demonstrate the first experimental realization of an optical…
Thin filters and gas tight windows are used in Space to protect sensitive X-ray detectors from out-of-band electromagnetic radiation, low-energy particles, and molecular contamination. Though very thin and made of light materials, filters…