Air holes turn silicon wafers into flat UV focusing mirrors for compact optics

58 pointsposted 3 days ago
by bookofjoe
(phys.org)

9 Comments

jacquesm

a day ago

The physics of holes and light are incredibly complex and interesting. Have a look at Optical Sieves if this stuff interests you.

Tarq0n

a day ago

Also waveguides. There's been some pretty revolutionary material science based on them in the last decade.

pfdietz

2 days ago

The application to EUV/XUV is important, as those wavelengths can be very useful for photolithography.

maciejw

a day ago

AFAIK there’s a significant silicon wafer shortage at the moment due to AI boom and supply chain issues. Are RAM manufacturers going to compete for them with optics manufacturers now?

ranger_danger

2 days ago

That is a genius idea.

I assume this could be tuned for other wavelengths of light just by adjusting the size of the air holes and nanoscale structures?

Could the same idea also be used for directing RF?

ranger_danger

a day ago

Also wouldn't the holes cause a percentage of light loss?