Three-dimensional imaging technologies are providing the crucial context of depth for scientific and medical applications, but 4D imaging, which adds information on light polarization, could open up even more possibilities. Unfortunately the equipment is usually bulky, expensive, and complicated. Now, a team from Nanjing University has developed self-assembling liquid crystal microlenses that can reveal 4D information in one snapshot.
Wei Hu, Yan-Qing Lu, and colleagues reported today in ACS Nano their efforts to develop a portable, inexpensive, and easy-to-use microlens to simultaneously acquire 3D space and polarization information, thereby producing 4D images.
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To make their microlenses, the researchers used liquid crystals. With a self-assembly process, they patterned arrays of liquid crystal microlenses into concentric circles. The team used a polarized optical microscope to image objects, such as a cross or the letter "E," under different directions of linearly polarized light. Microlenses in the array imaged the object differently, depending on their distance from the object and the direction of polarized light, producing 4D information.
Although the resolution needs to be improved, the technique could someday be used in applications such as medical imaging, communications, displays, information encryption, and remote sensing, the team explained.