Active manipulation of light beams is required for a range of emerging optical technologies, including sensing, optical computing, virtual/augmented reality, dynamic holography, and computational imaging.
Researchers at Stanford have developed an ultracompact, high-quality-factor (high-Q) metasurface that enables more convenient phase contrast imaging. Phase contrast imaging is a critical technique in biology and medicine to image essentially transparent objects such as cells.
This invention facilitates the realization of optical elements with spatially multiplexed/interleaved phase profiles to achieve a high packing density of distinct optical elements on a surface.
Stanford researchers have developed an optical coating that steers infrared and visual light in different paths while suppressing the typical undesired rainbow effect.