Institucio Catalana De Recerca I Estudis Avancats

Fundacio Institut De Ciencies Fotoniques

Jon Donner

Romain Quidant

Renaud Marty

The present disclosure relates to a thermally modulated optical lens apparatus that includes an electrically resistive element that has patterned features. The patterned features may be micro-sized or smaller and may create an electrical resistance density across the electrically resistive element. The electrically resistive element is capable of electrically connecting to a controllable electrical source. The apparatus also includes at least one thermo-optical material in thermal contact with the patterned features of the electrically resistive element. The at least one thermo-optical material can have an optical refractive index profile that corresponds to the electrical resistance density.

Adaptive thermal micro lens

A system having a micro lens array is provided. In some embodiments, the system includes a plurality of individual adaptive photo thermal lenses that have at least one cell, each cell provided with at least one photo absorbing particle; and a thermo-optical material in thermal contact with the cells; and at least one controllable light source for illuminating the photo absorbing particles, the light source having at least one spectral component which can be absorbed by the photo-absorbing particles, each cell being defined by the optical interaction area between the at least one photo absorbing particle and the at least one controllable light source, wherein the at least one controllable light source is controllable in one or more of wavelength, power, and polarisation, to locally modify the focal lengths of the individual adaptive photo thermal lenses having the cells.

Adaptive photothermal lens

An adaptive photo thermal lens comprising at least one cell, each cell provided with at least one photo absorbing particle, a thermo-optical material in thermal contact with the cells and at least one controllable light source for illuminating the photo absorbing particles, the light source having at least one spectral component which can be absorbed by the photo-absorbing particles and being controllable in wavelength and/or power and/or polarization.

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Barcelona, Spain

Jon Donner