Biological materials are often based on simple constituents and grown by the principle of self-assembly under ambient conditions. In particular, biomineralization approaches exploit efficient pathways of inorganic material synthesis. There is still a large gap between the complexity of natural systems and the practical utilization of bioinspired formation mechanisms. Here we describe a simple s...

Thermoplastic optical polymers have replaced traditional optical glass for many applications, due to their superior optical performance, mechanical characteristics, low cost, and efficient production process. This paper investigates noncontact microembossing technology used for producing microlens arrays made out of PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate), PS (polyStyrene), and PC (polycarbonate) from a...

We present a free-space optical interconnect system capable of dynamic closed-loop optical alignment using a microlens scanner with a proportional integral and derivative controller. Electrostatic microlens scanners based on combdrive actuators are designed and characterized with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for adaptive optical beam tracking in the midst of mechanical vibra...

Over the past years, the internet core rapidly increases, transparent protocols become more available for DWDM system in the fiber to the home, fiber to the institutions service. In densely spaced wavelength-routed and large-capacity optical network systems, single-mode lasers with narrow linewidth and low temperature sensitivity are of particular importance as the light sources in transmitter ...

In this paper we show that the recently developed nanostructured gradient index (nGRIN) rod microlens can be utilised for the collimation of the beam generated by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The modelling of the nanostructured lens structure is performed using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method with realistic nGRIN parameters and a Gaussian model of the light ...

Super-resolution in imaging through a transparent spherical microlens has attracted lots of attention because of recent promising experimental results with remarkable resolution improvement. To provide physical insight for this super-resolution phenomenon, previous studies adopted a phenomenological explanation mainly based on the super-focusing effect of a photonic nanojet, while a direct imag...

Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) is an emerging technique that directly images optical absorption in tissue at high spatial resolution. To date, the majority of OR-PAM systems are based on single-focused optical excitation and ultrasonic detection, limiting the wide-field imaging speed. While 1D multifocal OR-PAM (1D-MFOR-PAM) has been developed, the potential of microlens a...

Plenoptic cameras, constructed with internal microlens arrays, capture both spatial and angular information, i.e., the full four-dimensional radiance, of a scene. The design of traditional plenoptic cameras assumes that each microlens image is completely defocused with respect to the image created by the main camera lens. As a result, only a single pixel in the final image is rendered from each...

Light curves of microlensing events involving stellar binaries and planetary systems can provide information about the orbital elements of the system due to orbital modulations of the caustic structure. Accurately measuring the orbit in either the stellar or planetary case requires detailed modeling of subtle deviations in the light curve. At the same time, the natural, Cartesian parameterizati...

An optically anisotropic microlens array film directly formed on a single substrate is demonstrated. UV curable diacrylate monomers are coated as a film on the substrate. Under the action of fringing field, not only the film surface is flattened by the generated dielectric force but also the monomers are reoriented to form a gradient refractive index (GRIN) distribution in the film. Via UV expo...