Image of the Week

Laser-Induced Breakdown

Bright speckles intercepted on a piece of white paper after an azimuthally polarized femtosecond laser beam is focused into a glass slide. The demonstration shows the existence of laser-induced breakdown in glass. (Photo captured in by an iPhone 6.)[Honorable Mention, OPN 2020 Photo Contest]

—Zhijun Xu, College of Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhejiang, China

18 Jan 2021

Wine Glass Caustics

The optical phenomenon called caustics is observed in this image under room light illumination, which results in the light interacting with the curved surface of the wine glass to form a colored ring in the center of the glass containing Finnish Glögi. The image was captured in Joensuu, Finland with a smartphone camera with EXIF data and post-processed with a camera filter. EXIF data: ISO:500, S:1/33 s, EV:0, F: 1.8, focal length: 140 mm (equivalent to 35mm focal length film).

—Dipanjan Das, Early Stage Researcher, Finland

11 Jan 2021

Harmonic Trajectories

Long exposure of the harmonic trajectories of a pendulum.

—Claudia García-Gil, UNAM, Mexico

04 Jan 2021

From Wine Glass to Gravitational Lensing

The foot of a wine glass, as used in a demonstration to understand the optics of the relativistic effects of gravitational lenses. From the paper “Halo Dynamics: From Rainbows to Black Holes.”

—Alberto Tufaile, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

28 Dec 2020

Diffused Holiday Lights

Christmas lights through a diffused bath window.

—Robert Schalck, OSA Senior Member, USA

21 Dec 2020

Freeform Hologram

The image shows a freeform hologram directly 3D printed onto the tip of a single-mode optical fiber (Optica 7, 1279 (2020)). The freeform hologram displays the logo "OSA The Optical Society," independent of distance into the far field. The illumination wavelength is 520 nm. [Third Place (Tie) OPN 2020 Photo Contest]

—Claudia Imiolczyk, Moritz Floess, Simon Thiele and Harald Giessen, University of Stuttgart, Germany

14 Dec 2020

Light Illumination

A set of 5 X-cubes, illuminated by the white light from a phone torch. Whilst typically used for splitting collimated light into RGB components, combining multiple cubes and a diverging source results in a spectrum of colors. [Third Place (Tie) OPN 2020 Photo Contest]

—Kevin J. Mitchell, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, U.K.

07 Dec 2020

Measuring Laser Power

The High Amplification Laser pressure Optic (HALO) was developed by NIST to measure kilowatts of laser power with best-in-class accuracy. Optical power is determined by measuring the force a laser beam exerts when it is reflected by the HALO’s central mirror. Thirteen smaller mirrors redirect the beam toward the central mirror, multiplying the force and reducing the measurement uncertainty. This image was captured with a green HeNe laser, traced out with a white card to show the beam path.[Second place, OPN 2020 Photo Contest]

—Aly Artusio-Glimpse, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

30 Nov 2020

Table Salt (NaCl)

Who knew something you eat every day could look so beautiful? Table salt (NaCl) imaged with polarization microscopy and a Wollaston or Nomarski prism. This image was taken by me at The George Washington University. [First-place winner, 2020 OPN Photo Contest]

—Erik A. Rodriguez, The George Washington University, U.S.A.

23 Nov 2020

Optical Vortices

Multiple back-reflections from various optical elements give rise to a constellation of optical vortices surrounding the central vortex beam. The image of the paper screen was acquired in a darkened laboratory environment using an iPhone 7 Plus.

—Alok K. Pandey, Laboratoire de Physique des Gaz et des Plasmas, Université Paris-Saclay, France

16 Nov 2020

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