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Volume 6 - July-September 2009

Story 1 - 14/7/2009
The Five Dimensions of Optical Storage
Can 300 DVDs be squeezed into a single optical disc? Ground breaking research in the field of surface plasmon physics seems to suggest so.

$The core of high refraction. The picture displays the core of the metamaterial with high index of refraction proposed by the researchers at Stanford University. Both high electric permittivity and magnetic permeability are needed in order to achieve a high refractive index in a metamaterial. Metallic inclusions allowing electric charge migration give a high permittivity, but usually a small permeability because of electric currents. The shape of the metallic inclusion needs to, therefore, be optimized in order to allow electric charges to move in non-loopy paths alone.$ Story 2 - 22/7/2009
Refractive Index: To the Limits and Beyond
Beyond what is naturally possible... metamaterials offer new unexplored opportunities to manipulate light. Researchers show the possibility to enhance the index of refraction of a material beyond natural limits.

Story 3 - 31/7/2009
Decoding the Code of Life
Reading information stored by genes — also known as gene sequencing — is a vital task to the study of life itself. A radically new technology has set the stage for a revolution in the deciphering of DNA strands.

Story 4 - 12/8/2009
The Ultracold Laser Show
In nightclubs and live concerts, figures or text are often outlined by quickly steering one single laser beam. The same principle has now been applied to drawing potentials onto ultracold gases: a new technique that could soon make its way into laboratories.

Story 5 - 20/8/2009
LEGO-Optics
When I hear, I forget; when I see, I remember; but only when I do, do I understand. When it is not possible to let students play with expensive optical setups, LEGO comes into play.

$Negative refraction. The picture on the left shows how a spoon in a glass of water appears to break at the air-water interface, and then continues inside the liquid slightly shifted to one side, but still keeping the same orientation as in air -- left-to-right in this case. This optical illusion is due to the fact that the refractive index of water is different from the one of air -- still positive though, as in any other natural material. On the right, there is a basic illustration of what would happen by filling the glass with a liquid with a negative index of refraction: the orientation of the spoon inside the liquid would appear to be diametrically opposite to the spoon in the air, namely right-to-left instead of left-to-right.$ Story 6 - 31/8/2009
Magical Metamaterials
Magic lies in the beauty of a powerful illusion. This is what the latest achievements in optics seem to suggest; metamaterials are now able to optically turn one object into another.

Story 7 - 8/9/2009
Much More than a Contact Lens
Super contact lenses which display background information onto your real world view seem like a gadget taken from the latest Spielberg movie. Thanks to a recently developed technique, this scenario may soon be real.

Story 8 - 15/9/2009
A Brighter Future for LED Displays
The displays of the future will be stretchable, twistable, deformable into any shape, and, perhaps more importantly, durable, efficient, and cheap. This is the promise of a new approach for manufacturing inorganic light emitting devices (ILEDs).

$A view through a METATOY. A sheet covered with tiny Dove prisms acts almost like a homogeneous surface and mimicks negative refraction in metamaterials. Here, a straight line perpendicular to the sheet appears bent into a hyperbola.$ Story 9 - 25/9/2009
From Fascination to Reality
A deep fascination with the flight of birds inspired the invention of the airplane. A deep fascination with the stars inspired the invention of the telescope. What will fascination with metamaterials inspire?