Manipulating light has been the essence of optics, from shaping glasses to make lenses and telescopes and pinhole cameras to capture images. Traditional optical components have curves and edges making them thick, limiting miniaturisation. With meta-optics, one can go beyond tradition by employing nanotechnology to create ultra-thin and flat structures to achieve the same functions and even extend performance. In TMOS, to manipulate light with meta-optics, we focus on optical metasurfaces and holography.
Metasurfaces enable much stronger tunability and reconfigurability than any natural non-structured material. This makes meta-optics a promising candidate for future flat devices that will dynamically control the wavelength, amplitude, phase, and polarisation of light. To create futuristic optical devices for holography and remote imaging, these capabilities are essential.
Our research aims to enhance the sensitivity of optical properties of metasurfaces to an external stimulus. The results will benefit not only the manipulation of light but also the development of metasurfaces for interaction with materials to create efficient light sources and for optical sensing applications.
Optical holograms can be created by simultaneous manipulation of both amplitude and phase of a light beam to reconstruct objects in three dimensions (3D). It permits the visualisation of 3D objects and offers extensive applications that include optical microscopy and imaging, three-dimensional displays, and metrology.
The Manipulate Theme will develop novel ultra-thin holographic elements that will enable the next generation of flexible and transparent augmented reality displays as well as neuromorphic holographic networks for optical image recognition and processing.
Manipulate
