microchip-based 3D optical devices tagged posts

At left, different patterns of slices through a thin metal foil, are made by a focused ion beam. These patterns cause the metal to fold up into predetermined shapes, which can be used for such purposes as modifying a beam of light.
Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

Folding and cutting thin metal films could enable microchip-based 3D optical devices. Nanokirigami has taken off as a field of research in the last few years; the approach is based on the ancient arts of origami (making 3D shapes by folding paper) and kirigami (which allows cutting as well as folding) but applied to flat materials at the nanoscale, measured in billionths of a meter.

Now, researchers at MIT and in China have for the first time applied this approach to the creation of nanodevices to manipulate light, potentially...