Significant progress in creating optics with nonuniform (gradient) refractive indices has been made over the past two decades. In 2020, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign proposed a unique way to use direct laser writing to achieve even greater control over the refractive index. A new open-access paper details refinements to their so-called SCRIBE method.
Read MoreResearchers from California Institute of Technology say that bendable ceramics are more than possible—they report the fabrication of alumina nanostructures that are 99.9% air and can bend and deform with the best of them, springing back to shape after compressions of over 50% strain.
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