Physicists develop microlens with earth-shatteringly short focal length

It's hard to say when we, the consumers, will actually see any real benefit from the latest noteworthy discovery from Northeastern University, but we can only imagine that Srinivas Sridhar and team aren't wasting any time moving things forward. Said crew has recently created a "new microlens that focuses infrared light at telecommunication frequencies," and if you're looking for specifics, it can focus an infrared beam to a spot just 12-micrometers away from the surface. The science behind the discovery is probably only digestible by those that understand rocket science, but the long of short of it is this: the "research shows that it is possible to create smaller, ultra-compact infrared optical components that can be integrated into existing semiconductor technologies while not sacrificing image quality." Now that's something even the layman can appreciate.

[Via Physorg]

[BananaBoat @ Aug 28th 2008 1:49AM]

My...my brain hurts.

[hhhjjjffr @ Aug 28th 2008 3:06AM]

Wouldn't rocket scientists be more understanding of thrust and explosive decompression than micro optics?

[ntlam @ Aug 28th 2008 1:58AM]

bad bad bad idea...

soon we have a camera/handphone tha's just 1 mm thick... and will be used by someone bad at heart to ge some shots in..............(fill in the blank).

[andres @ Aug 28th 2008 2:10AM]

t

[Srikar @ Aug 28th 2008 2:12AM]

oh....thats my university!!!! am doing masters in it right now :D ...but in the CS dept though, no way related to physics. hehe...

BTW....does that tech anyway relate to using optics in semiconductor devices for transporting signals from one chip to another ? something similar to optical fibre, but am talking abt CPU level transfers, which is right now carried out by electrical pulses

[loosely_coupled @ Aug 28th 2008 2:29AM]

Thats exactly what I am wondering. My first thought was chip interconnects and other optical communications, but I'm unsure if that type of application would need these types of microlenses, and the fact that the engineer talks about preserving "image quality". At the same time, if not for fiber-optic communications, where else are infrared wavelengths used? astronomical telescope sensors??
Perhaps I should, you know, actually read the article... lol

[Steven @ Aug 28th 2008 5:28AM]

You own a university?

[johnny_toes @ Aug 28th 2008 2:18AM]

[quote]bad bad bad idea...

soon we have a camera/handphone tha's just 1 mm thick... and will be used by someone bad at heart to ge some shots in..............(fill in the blank).[/quote]

Maybe... but there could be a better usage for it.

Since my native language is not english and my major is way waaaay different than rocket science, I could only deduct and think this:

Is it possible that using this technology maybe ppl that have very bad sight or blind people, would be able to see??????

I don't know... that's just what I understood of the article.

Cheers =)

[aquatsr @ Aug 28th 2008 2:50AM]

I'm waiting to the day when an average consumer can buy a ultrathin camera that uses liquid lenses.

[ug @ Aug 29th 2008 11:40AM]

Holy vitiligo, Batman!