TSU physicists create liquid micro-lenses, applicable to medicine
TSU scientists have created liquid micro-lenses that imitate the human eye’s accommodation function, capable of focusing by changing its surface curvature. The researchers synthesized a solution that, while irradiated with a beam of light, turns into a drop and functions as a flat-convex lens.
Aleksandr Maluk, a postgraduate student at The Research Laboratory of Photonics and Microfluidics, presented the development at the Photon academic conference held at the University of Leeds (Great Britain).
“It is possible to change the surface curvature by altering the radiation intensity,” Maluk states. “In other words, with more light, the diameter of the lens shrinks, curvature grows, and the focal length becomes smaller; with less light, the diameter increases, the curvature shrinks, and therefore the focal length lengthens.”
Additionally, surface properties like tension, viscosity, and vapor pressure -- among others -- may determine variations in focal length.
According to Maluk, this invention can be applicable to microbiology and medicine, navigation systems, laser control and diagnostics, as well as information transmission devices.
Two articles will be published in academic journals based on this research. In the meantime, TSU scientists are planning to improve the efficiency of their innovation.
Over the last decade, the field of adaptive optics has captured the interest of researchers from all over the world, for unlike its solid-state analogues, these lenses can focus an unlimited number of times without wearing down. They can also work quickly due to their fluidity. Liquid lenses minimize the majority of the complications of optical systems due to their capacity to change focal distance across a wide range.
Source: TSU Information Policy Administration
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