2016 Photo Contest

Acoustic wave

Acoustic waves spectrally modulate supercontinuum light inside an acousto-optic tunable filter. The supercontinuum light interacts with resonating acoustic modes to produce 4-lobed orange, green and rainbow Schaefer-Bergmann diffraction patterns around the two spectrally modulated beams and undiffracted light. These optical patterns can quantitatively measure acoustic properties of crystals. [Winner 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Stephanie Swartz, University of Colorado at Boulder

29 Nov 2016

White Light

A strip of LEDs creates white light by combing sets of red, green and blue LEDs placed together. When imaged through the glass sphere in the center, the red, green and blue caustics are imaged to slightly different locations, due to the small distances between each color LED. [Second Place 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Page E. King, College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona

29 Nov 2016

Axicons

We normally use axicons on-axis configuration to generate Bessel beams for femtosecond laser micromachining. Due to the geometry of these conical lenses, refraction in the axicons produces interesting caustics. Playing with axicons' tilts and positions may turn these caustics into actual pieces of graphic art. [Third Place 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Rémi Meyer , FEMTO-ST Institute, Besançon (FR)

29 Nov 2016

$Refraction & Reflection a CD$

Refraction & Reflection a CD

Water droplets on a compact disc refract light before they enter the polycarbonate layer. A flashlight's movements were captured with a fifteen second exposure time. [Honorable Mention 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Nicholas A. Hall, Brigham Young University-Idaho

29 Nov 2016

Entimus imperialis’ photonic polycrystal

Scales covering the elytra of the Brazilian diamond beetle display iridescent photonic polycrystals, due to light interference within the optical structure comprised in the scales. [Honorable Mention 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Sébastien R. Mouchet, University of Exeter

29 Nov 2016

Polarizing lenses of 3D glasses

The chiral corn-syrup molecules in the beaker twist the backlight’s horizontal polarization. 3-D glasses’ polarizing lenses reveal that blue light is rotated more than red. [Honorable Mention 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Paul G. Kwiat , University of Illinois

29 Nov 2016

Mouse Brain

Coronal view of 20-µm thick section of a mouse brain, taken in white light with a polychromatic polarization microscope. Colors reveal orientation of nerve cell molecules. [Honorable Mention 2016 After Image photo contest.]

—Michael Shribak, Marine Biological Laboratory

29 Nov 2016