Related papers: Ultra-Thin Floating Mirrors
Glass films prepared by a process of physical vapor deposition have been shown to have thermodynamic and kinetic stability comparable to those of ordinary glasses aged for thousands of years. A central question in the study of…
Optically resonant particles are key building blocks of many nanophotonic devices such as optical antennas and metasurfaces. Because the functionalities of such devices are largely determined by the optical properties of individual…
Temperature-driven polyamorphism has been reported in various supercooled liquids and glasses. The dynamical and structural routes followed by the system during such crossovers are however not universal and appear to be related to intrinsic…
Achieving laser-driven, reflective, relativistic light sails would represent a tremendous breakthrough for humankind, allowing us to advance our understanding of the solar system and deep space far beyond what we know from space probes,…
We introduce an adaptive optical refinement method enabling ultra-precise micro-milling of arbitrary surfaces. Through repeated iteration, our method reduces surface error without requiring significant specific surface engineering. This…
The latest high-performance telescopes for deep space observation employ very large primary mirrors that are made of smaller segments, like the JWST which employs monolithic beryllium hexagonal segments. A very promising development stage…
Thin films or sheets subjected to external forces often undergo mechanical instability, leading to regular patterns of wrinkles, folds, and creases. As can be anticipated from the difficulty of flattening a curved globe, any natural…
Limited access to corrective eyewear remains a significant medical, societal, and economic challenge, even in the 21st century. More than 1 billion people suffer from uncorrected vision impairment, with the vast majority residing in…
It was predicted long ago that ultra-thin metallic films must exhibit unusual optical properties for radiation frequencies from rf to infrared domain. A film would remain highly reflective even when it is orders of magnitude thinner than a…
We introduce a class of optical media based on adiabatically modulated, dielectric-only, and potentially extremely low-loss, photonic crystals. The media we describe represent a generalization of the eikonal limit of transformation optics…
Optical metamaterials have the potential to control the flow of light at will which may lead to spectacular applications as the perfect lens or the cloaking device. Both of these optical elements require invariant effective material…
Realizing laterally continuous ultra-thin gold films on transparent substrates is a challenge of significant technological importance. In the present work, formation of ultra-thin gold films on fused silica is studied, demonstrating how…
Optical fibres have already played a huge part in ground based astronomical instrumentation, however, with the revolution in photonics currently taking place new fibre technologies and integrated optical devices are likely to have a…
Microrheology is a branch of rheology having the same principles as conventional bulk rheology, but working on micron length scales and micro-litre volumes. Optical tweezers have been successfully used with Newtonian fluids for rheological…
A new imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (CANGAROO-II) with a light-weight reflector has been constructed. Light, robust, and durable mirror facets of containing CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) laminates were developed for the…
Visible light communication (VLC) complements radio frequency in indoor environments with large wireless data traffic. However, VLC is hindered by dramatic path losses when an opaque object is interposed between the transmitter and the…
Ultra-thin crystal targets in shape of self-supporting membranes were produced for our experiments with parametric x-rays emitted by low-energy electrons. Concise description of the technology developed for production of silicon crystal…
A broad fundamental understanding of the mechanisms underlying the phenomenology of supercooled liquids has remained elusive, despite decades of intense exploration. When supercooled beneath its characteristic melting temperature, a liquid…
Molecular dynamics simulations of ultrathin water film confined between atomically flat rigid diamond plates are described. Films with thickness of one and two molecular diameters are concerned and TIP4P model is used for water molecules.…
We report on electrically-induced rotations in water films, which can function at many length scales. The device consists of a two-dimensional cell used for electrolysis of water films, as simple as an insulator frame with two electrodes on…