Lens 2,000 times thinner than human hair created at ANU
Australian scientists have created the world’s thinnest lens, in a move that could revolutionise cameras and optical displays.
A team of researchers led by Dr Yuerui ‘Larry’ Lu from the Australian National University (ANU) created the lens, which is one two-thousandth the thickness of a human hair.
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This might have some microelectronics applications, but a macro lens this thin would be no better than no lens at all.
dv said:
This might have some microelectronics applications, but a macro lens this thin would be no better than no lens at all.
maybe blindness can be got around by projecting an image from google glasses straight into the brain
A lens wrapped around the eyeball, like those curved screens
or another way would be to have d digital camera plugged into optic nerves
more research needs to be done
CrazyNeutrino said:
A lens wrapped around the eyeball, like those curved screens
A lens as thin as this, wrapped around the eyeball, would do nothing.
Focal power is proportional to the (thickess) times (optical index minus one) divided by (the diameter of curvature squared)
Negligible thickess means negligible focal power.
dv said:
CrazyNeutrino said:A lens wrapped around the eyeball, like those curved screens
A lens as thin as this, wrapped around the eyeball, would do nothing.
Focal power is proportional to the (thickess) times (optical index minus one) divided by (the diameter of curvature squared)
Negligible thickess means negligible focal power.
Ah but focal distance as to lens magnification. Here is where to start.
CrazyNeutrino said:
dv said:
This might have some microelectronics applications, but a macro lens this thin would be no better than no lens at all.
maybe blindness can be got around by projecting an image from google glasses straight into the brain
A lens wrapped around the eyeball, like those curved screens
or another way would be to have d digital camera plugged into optic nerves
more research needs to be done
The first part of the visual processing is in the retina. This is fairly new information. There are also other levels of processing, so it would be rather difficult to know where to project your google glass image. Also, roughly a million axons in each optic nerve. Plugging in to that could be interesting.
And blindness is not a lens/focus issue. We fixed that a long time ago with cataract surgery and glasses/contact lenses
roughbarked said:
Ah but focal distance as to lens magnification. Here is where to start.
What? No.
> A crystal called molybdenum disulphide was the special ingredient. To create an object with the domed shape of a lens, scientists shaved off layers of the crystal atom by atom. The finished lens is 6.3 nanometres thick.
You see the problem, don’t you?
A crystal is by its very nature made of layers, the unit cell of MbS2 is 0.316 * 0.316 * 2.30 nm. Get the orientation wrong and the closest you can get to 6.3 nm is 3 layers at 2.30 nm = 6.9 nm instead of 6.3. Even getting the orientation right the result is only 20 atoms thick, what you end up with is not a smooth lens but a stepped pyramid, with resulting focussing inaccuracy.