 Posted: Sat 4:35, 30 Nov 2013 Post subject: " he explained. "With a flat lens |
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| Research team develops flat optical lens that admits more light
VICTORIA, British Columbia, May 23 () -- Canadian and U.S. researchers say they've developed a spray-on technology that could revolutionize the way optical lenses are made and used.Kenneth Chau, an engineering professor at the University of British Columbia,[url=http://www.ldike.com/]michael kors handbags outlet[/url], was part of a research team working to create a flat, rather than curved,[url=http://www.xirland.com]christian louboutin men[/url], optical lens.Nearly all lenses, whether in an eye, a camera or a microscope, are curved, which limits the aperture or amount of light that that can enter, whereas a flat lens has not such limitations, Chau said."The idea of a flat lens goes back to the 1960s when a Russian physicist came up with the theory," he said in a university release Thursday. "The challenge is that there are no naturally occurring materials to make that type of flat lens. Through trial and error and years of research, we have come up with a fairly simple recipe for a spray-on material that can act as that flat lens."The substance, known as a negative-index metamaterial, can be sprayed onto surfaces such as glass slides and turn them into flat lenses for imaging of biological specimens, he said."Curved lenses always have a limited aperture," he explained. "With a flat lens, suddenly you can make lenses with an arbitrary aperture size -- perhaps as big as a football field."The technology could change the way imaging devices like cameras and scanners are designed, the researchers said."This is the closest validation we have of the original flat lens theory," Chau said. "The recipe, now that we've got it working, is simple and cost-effective. Our next step is to extrapolate this technique further, explore the effect to the fullest, and advance it as far as we can take it." |
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