Shaping light with a smartlens

Nanowerk  July 26, 2019 Liquid crystal spatial light modulators have been the tool of choice for high-resolution light shaping, but their implementation has proven to have limits in terms of performance, bulkiness and cost. An international team of researchers (Spain, France) has demonstrated a method of deterministic phase-front shaping using a planar thermo-optical module and designed microheaters to locally shape the refractive index distribution. When combined with a genetic algorithm optimization, this SmartLens can produce free-form optical wavefront modifications, generate complex functions based on either pure or combined Zernike polynomials, including lenses or aberration correctors of electrically tunable magnitude. This […]