Diffraction gratings are curious things. Score a series of equally spaced tiny lines in a surface, and it will cause reflected or transmitted light to bend and separate into its component wavelengths.

Fig. 1. a, fabrication process of humidity-responsive CLCP films with geometric phase encoding. b, Photo of the films cured at 65℃. The scale bar is 1 mm. Credit: Shi-Long Li, Zhao-Yi Chen, Peng Chen, ...

Thanks to a set of unique properties, diffractive optical elements have the potential to transform light into almost any desired distribution. Joshika Akhil gives the low-down on the technology that ...

As a promising candidate for next-generation mobile platform, mixed reality (MR) such as Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest Pro (both are passthrough virtual reality headsets) has potential to ...

Wave dynamics in magnetised plasmas and the associated geometrical optics framework constitute a rapidly evolving area of research, combining fundamental physics with practical applications in ...

Kelly Peng is an electrical and optical engineer, and founder of Kura AR. She’s built a fusion reactor, a Raman spectrometer, a DIY structured light camera, a linear particle accelerator, and ...

As photonics continues to penetrate the world of consumer electronics and telecommunications, there is an increasing need for custom-designed optical parts that are low cost, compact and lightweight.

It’s not uncommon to see patented products never make it off paper. But if Canon’s latest lens patent is anything to go by, Canon could soon have one of the most impressive super-telephoto lenses on ...