Multimedia / Photo Contest / 2021
Swimming Jellyfish
Swimming Jellyfish

Translucent jellyfish swimming freely in a tank at the Hangzhou Aquarium. It's pictured by an iPhone 6.

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

01 Dec 2021

Clawfoot Tub
Clawfoot Tub

Clawfoot Tub on Heated Floor (do not bolt tub to floor!) Bathroom remodel: tile floors with heating elements underneath tiles. Clawfoot tub installation manual specifies bolting tub to floor. Checked location of heating element using a FLIR IPhone compatible infrared camera - element was directly underneath tub foot! Used clear silicone to bond tub to floor instead of bolts.

—Tom Scheffelin, Scouts BSA (Volunteer), Gold River, CA

01 Dec 2021

Magic blue
Magic blue

Nonlinear effects in crystals can create photons with twice the energy of the ones of a pump laser. Here 450nm light is created from a 900nm laser passing through a doubling optical cavity and a PPLN crystal, producing light apparently out of nothing.

—Lucia Duca, INRiM, Torino, Italy

01 Dec 2021

Birefringent glass
Birefringent glass

Observation of the presence of strong birefringence in a commercial glass block used for 3D laser engraved models. The glass block is in front of the linear polarized light produced by a computer LCD screen and a crossed linear polarizer is used in front of the cell phone camera lens. Surprising, this glass block presents a strong birefringence which was not expected for an "amorphous material".

—Lino Misoguti, University of Sao Paulo, Brasil

01 Dec 2021

Light Bird
Light Bird

A colorful flying bird pattern comes from the focused femtosecond laser pulse's interaction with a glass slide. It's intercepted on a piece of white paper and captured elaborately by an iPhone 6. The shiny colors denote the strong laser-induced breakdown.

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

01 Dec 2021

640/520/460
640/520/460

Red + green + blue = white. Beam-combining optics for an experimental holographic display in our Phoenix lab.

—Stephen J Hart, Satori Optics LLC, Tempe, AZ

01 Dec 2021

Vintage Vacuum Tubes
Vintage Vacuum Tubes

X-ray image depicting old vacuum (electron) tubes. Left to right: a 1931 Sylvania 35E; a 1932 Ken-Rad 57; and a 1936 Silverstone 58. In the early twentieth century, vacuum tubes were used in radio, radar sets, telecommunications, and switching operations in the earliest electronic computers. After the 1950s, they were replaced by transistors, the steppingstone between vacuum tubes and modern computer technology. Image taken with an X-ray system (ZEISS Xradia Context).

—Herminso Villarraga-Gómez, Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, Lake Forest, CA

01 Dec 2021

Distorted radiation field
Distorted radiation field

Radiation from the central spherical mass appears to have distorted the fabric of the surrounding space. Refracted striae images and interference and TIR shadow patterns are created in a crystal ball. Equipment used: crystal ball (with bubbles creating TIR voids), diode laser and Nikon D3300 camera.

—Samuel Pellicori, OSA Senior Member, Santa Barbara, CA

01 Dec 2021

Emulsion Droplets
Emulsion Droplets

Bright field image of oil in water emulsion droplets.

—Siddharth Rawat, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia

01 Dec 2021

Maltese cross
Maltese cross

Classic Maltese cross phenomenon formed when birefringent materials are placed between crossed linear polarizers. which can easily viewed by polariscope. This image was captured by using the Moto e3 power phone with help of a polariscope. 

—Manchikanti Neelima, Neoretina Eyecare Institute, Hyderabad, India

01 Dec 2021

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