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New lens device will shrink huge light waves to pinpoints
July 13, 2007ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Manipulating light waves, or electromagnetic radiation, has led to many technologies, from cameras to lasers to medical imaging machines that can see inside the human body.
Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed a way to make a lens-like device that focuses electromagnetic waves down to the tiniest of points. The breakthrough opens the door to the next generation of technology, said Roberto Merlin, professor of physics at U-M. His research on the discovery will be published online July 12 in Science Express.
Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by electromagnetic waves that are generated naturally, such as sunlight, and artificially, by appliances such as microwave ovens and radio transmitters. Some waves are visible, and some are invisible.
Materials respond differently to different wavelengths, and when using electromagnetic waves, one is usually limited by the length of the light wave, Merlin said. For example, the amount of information you can store on a CD is limited by the number of bits you can fit on the CD, and this is dictated by the length of the electromagnetic wave. The smaller the wavelength, the smaller the bit, which means more bits of data can be stored on the CD.
There is a huge push underway to find ways to get around this limitation, but until now scientists didn't have a good method for achieving that, Merlin said.
Using mathematical models, Merlin developed a formula that removes the wavelength limitation. Merlin is now working with assistant professor Anthony Grbic from the U-M College of Engineering to build the device, and they have filed for a patent.
The device will look like a plate or a disc, and is etched with a specific pattern. As the waves pass through the patterned lens, it is sculpted into different sizes and shapes. The lens does not refract, or bend the light waves---which is how conventional lenses work---but rather it reshapes the wave.
The discovery holds promise for applications in data storage, non-contact sensing, imaging, and nanolithography.
With the new technology, a CD could hold up to one hundred times more information by using terahertz radiation rather than visible light, even though the length of a terahertz wave is about 1000 times longer.
University of Michigan
Materials respond differently to different wavelengths, and when using electromagnetic waves, one is usually limited by the length of the light wave, Merlin said. For example, the amount of information you can store on a CD is limited by the number of bits you can fit on the CD, and this is dictated by the length of the electromagnetic wave. The smaller the wavelength, the smaller the bit, which means more bits of data can be stored on the CD.
There is a huge push underway to find ways to get around this limitation, but until now scientists didn't have a good method for achieving that, Merlin said.
Using mathematical models, Merlin developed a formula that removes the wavelength limitation. Merlin is now working with assistant professor Anthony Grbic from the U-M College of Engineering to build the device, and they have filed for a patent.
The device will look like a plate or a disc, and is etched with a specific pattern. As the waves pass through the patterned lens, it is sculpted into different sizes and shapes. The lens does not refract, or bend the light waves---which is how conventional lenses work---but rather it reshapes the wave.
The discovery holds promise for applications in data storage, non-contact sensing, imaging, and nanolithography.
With the new technology, a CD could hold up to one hundred times more information by using terahertz radiation rather than visible light, even though the length of a terahertz wave is about 1000 times longer.
University of Michigan
Light Wave Current Events and Light Wave News RSSMantis shrimps could show us the way to a better DVD
The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published today in Nature Photonics.
Breaking barriers with nanoscale lasers
We could soon see the potential of laser technology expand dramatically. Ways to make lasers smaller are being discovered through collaborative efforts of researchers at Arizona State University and Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
Catching the lightwave: Nano-mechanical sensors 'wired' by photonics
As researchers push towards detection of single molecules, single electron spins and the smallest amounts of mass and movement, Yale researchers have demonstrated silicon-based nanocantilevers, smaller than the wavelength of light, that operate on photonic principles eliminating the need for electric transducers and expensive laser setups.
New metamaterials that bend light backwards bring invisibility cloaks 1 step closer
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time engineered 3-D materials that can reverse the natural direction of visible and near-infrared light, a development that could help form the basis for higher resolution optical imaging, nanocircuits for high-powered computers, and, to the delight of science-fiction and fantasy buffs, cloaking devices that could render objects invisible to the human eye.
Physicists produce quantum-entangled images
Using a convenient and flexible method for creating twin light beams, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have produced "quantum images," pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are "entangled," or inextricably linked by the laws of quantum physics.
A sub-femtosecond stop watch for 'photon finish' races
Using a system that can compare the travel times of two photons with sub-femtosecond precision, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (a partnership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland) and Georgetown University have found a remarkably large difference in the time it takes photons to pass through nearly identical stacks of materials with different arrangements of refractive layers.
Electron filmed for first time ever
Now it is possible to see a movie of an electron. The movie shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom.
MIT creates 3-D images of living cell
A new imaging technique developed at MIT has allowed scientists to create the first 3D images of a living cell, using a method similar to the X-ray CT scans doctors use to see inside the body.
Holographic images use shimmer to show cellular response to anticancer drug
The response of tumors to anticancer drugs has been observed in real-time 3-D images using technology developed at Purdue University.
Research Paper Illuminates How Light Pushes Atoms
A research paper published in the 18 August edition of the journal Physical Review Letters reveals a new effect in the fundamental way that laser light interacts with atoms.
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