Image of the Week
Striking images of optics and photonics, contributed by OPN readers
Rainbow in the Crystals
An IR filter (750–900 nm), placed in the center of a micrograph of artificial tear crystals with the field diaphragm fully open, reveals multiple wavelengths—from infrared in the center of the crystals to violet on the outer circumference.
—Baruc Zago Mazzocco, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica, San Andrés Cholula, Mexico
01 Aug 2025
The Spot of Arago
Arago's spot is visible at the center of the shadow behind a spherical ball bearing illuminated with a laser. Although the obstruction is opaque, coherent superposition of the diffracted light from around the circumference constructively interferes to produce a bright spot on-axis.
—Jason Zweiback, Triangulum Technology, Diablo, CA, USA
25 Jul 2025
Thin-Film Interference
Interference bands in a soap film appear primarily at the bottom half due to gravity-induced variations in film thickness. These colors arise from constructive and destructive interference of reflected light waves between the front and back surfaces of the film.
—Edgar Guevara, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
18 Jul 2025
Polynomial Beauty
A 2D histogram on the complex plane of the number of solutions from a given set of polynomials generated from a set of 7×7 matrices. The heat map can be interpreted as a plot of the probability that a random matrix will have a characteristic polynomial with a solution in a certain location.
—Trra02, Wiki Science Competition 2023
11 Jul 2025
Guided Light
Red and green laser beams projected on a spool of twisted silica yarn (Quarztel) lead to light being trapped (waveguided) along the circumference of the spool.
—Catalin Florea, Voyage Photonics
04 Jul 2025
Dispersion in Cloud
Mesmerizing dispersion of colors in the clouds at sunset above Kotturpuram railway station, Chennai, India.
—Mahalingam Babu, India
27 Jun 2025
Love Letter
An axicon lens normally produces a circular beam, but placing a hand in its path caused diffraction and scattering, forming a heart shape. It became a love letter, written in light.
—Kanako Yoshimura, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
20 Jun 2025
A Star Like No Other
Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving fresh clues about the origin of a new class of mysterious objects called long period radio transients. Discovered in 2022, these objects vary in radio wave intensity in a regular way over tens of minutes. Read more.
—X-ray: NASA/CXC/ICRAR, Curtin Univ./Z. Wang et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/CalTech/IPAC; Radio: SARAO/MeerKAT; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
13 Jun 2025
Elastic Scattering Sunset
Rayleigh scattering produces a vibrant sunset as the sunlight traverses a greater atmospheric path, scattering more blues and greens to leave behind predominantly red hues.
— Edgar Guevara, CONAHCYT-UASLP, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
06 Jun 2025
"Coffee Bubble" Mirrors
Hot coffee poured into a ceramic mug bubbles up rapidly, generating a myriad of self-similar, curved reflectors that include images of the ceiling light gleaming at different scales.
—Jaeyoun Kim, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
30 May 2025
