14 DAY TRIAL // Purdue University experts, led by associate research professor of electrical and computer engineering Alexander Kildishev, announce the development of a metasurface covered with thousands of nanoscale antennas, which can successfully produce very small holograms.
The new instrument uses an extremely thin gold foil to hold the V-shaped antennas into place. Scientists say it could potentially be used to create a new generation of optical switches for computer applications, or to enable the development of planar photonic devices.
Metasurfaces such as this one could also be used to build more advanced sensors, higher-resolution displays, as well as better and information processing devices. The instrument creates holograms from laser light that shines through the nanoscale antennas.
The holograms appear just 10 microns above the gold foil, and their smallest features are just 1 micrometer wide, Science Blog reports. Details of the metasurface were published in the November 15 issue of the top scientific journal Nature Communications.