Grupo de Tecnologías Ópticas y Optoelectrónicas

Ignacio Moreno made a short one week visit to our friends at San Diego State University (SDSU) in February 2016. During this short visit he could discuss the collaboration continuation with Prof. Jeffrey Davis and his team at the Department of Physics.

We also had the opportunity to have a visit from Prof. Nobuyuki Hashimoto, and Ayano Tanabe, from the Development Division of Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd, in Saitama, Japan. Prof. Hashimoto provided us with a prototype q-plate liquid crystal device that we have been using on our last common works on the generation and manipulation of vector beams. The picture shows us, Jeff, Nobuyuki and Ignacio, at the SDSU campus.

Our friend Prof. Juan Campos, from the Department of Physics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) visited us on March 3rd and 4rth, 2016. Juan is the leader researcher in the national research projects we develop in collaboration.

Juan came to Elche to participate in the 3rd edition of the PhD Workshop of TECNIT – the Doctorate Program in Industrial & Telecommunications of UMH. He participated at the workshop by giving a talk entitled ADVANCES IN OPTICAL POLARIMETRY: DEVICES AND APPLICATIONS. This talk can be viewed at the above link.

Ignacio Moreno wrote the chapter entitled «Polarization of Light» in the didactic unit entitled Ciencia con Luz Propia: Aplicaciones Tecnológicas de la Luz (Science with its own Light: Technological Applications of Light).

This book has been published by FECYT – Fundación Española de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spanish Foundation for Science & Technology) and SM editorial, and can be free downloaded at the following link.

The book has been coordinated by Prof. José Antonio García, from the Department of Optics of the University of Granada, and it includes 10 chapters intended to provide tools about optics and light science for students at secondary schools, and promote the students’ interest in science and technology.

Master students Pedro Martínez and Jordi Gomis successfully defended their respective Master degree thesis on March 3rd 2016, to obtain the Master degree in Solar & Renewable Energy from UMH.

They both developed their master thesis within TecnOpto Lab, supervised by Ignacio Moreno, in the development of a spectral control system based on a super continuum laser source modulated by means of a liquid crystal spatial light modulator. They both received the maximum grade for their work.

Pedro’s work was entitled «Study of liquid crystal modulators for the realization of a digital artificial and solar spectrum generator», while Jordi’s work was entitled «Advanced optical system for the generation of digital spectra. Application as a solar simulator and source for testing detectors».

Pascuala Garcia and Maria del Mar Sanchez met Jocelyn Bell at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Valencia.

Dr. Bell, renown astrophysicist famous for the discovery of pulsars, was invited to Valencia to give a conference within the cycle of seminars of the Faculty of Physics. Dr. Bell was one of the women selected for the Exhibition Women in Light Science and Light Technology. This exhibition coordinated by Pascuala García, and with the participation of María del Mar Sánchez, has been developed by members of the Group of Women in Physics of RSEF –  Real Sociedad Española de Física, and from SEDOPTICA – Sociedad Española de Óptica.

The exhibition was inaugurated in September 2015 at the SEDOPTICA meeting XI Reunión Nacional de Óptica, held in Salamanca, and it has been exhibited at many different locations, including the University of Valencia, and the University Miguel Hernandez, where it can now be visited at the hall of the building Arenales, until April 11th, 2016.

We published a new paper in Optics Express. The paper, entitled «Diffraction gratings generating orders with selective states of polarization» appears in the second issue of the journal in 2016.

In this paper we propose specially designed double anisotropic polarization diffraction gratings capable of producing a selective number of diffraction orders and with selective different states of polarization. Different polarization diffraction gratings are demonstrated, including linear polarization with horizontal, vertical and ± 45° orientations, and circular R and L polarization outputs. When illuminated with an arbitrary state of polarization, the system acts as a complete polarimeter where the intensities of the diffraction orders allow measurement of the Stokes parameters with a single shot. Experimental proof-of-concept is presented using a parallel-aligned liquid crystal display operating in a double pass architecture.

This work has been done in collaboration with our friends at San Diego State University.

A new area has been opened at the MUDIC – the museum of interactive science –, devoted to experiments on the science of light. This museum, located at the UMH campus of Orihuela, is intended to make science of interest for the general public, but mainly to young students, by means of interactive and funny experiences. This new area of the museum is named the «Room of Light» (la Sala de la Luz), and it covers a set of experiences with light and color.

The opening ceremony was organized at EPSO – Escuela Politécnica Superior de Orihuela on December 3th 2015. The event was cochaired by  Prof. Jesús Pastosr Ciurana, Rector of UMH, and D. Emilio Bascuñana, major of Orihuela. Ignacio Moreno presented the opening lecture «Optics & Photonics: MUDIC brings the science and technology of light».  A video of this opening can be viewed at: Video link (in Spanish).

Ignacio Moreno has cooperated with the project as a scientific advisor, and has worked with Jesús Carnicer, the MUDIC pedagogical director, and Rocío Espinosa, one of the MUDIC monitors, in the design and developments of some of the modules.

The 2016 calendar on Women in Light Science and Light Technology has been launched.

Coordinated by Pascuala Garcia and with the participation of Maria del Mar Sánchez, this calendar summarizes the Exhibition on Women in Light Science and Light Technology, developed with the support of SEDOPTICA, RSEF, and SPIE among others, in commemoration of the International Year of Light.

This exhibition promotes the visibility of 12 women who contributed significantly to the development of light science and technology. Each month is devoted to one of these famous researchers.

The calendar can be downloaded at: link

We published a new paper in Optics Letters entitled «Performance of a q-pate tunable retarder in reflection for the switchable generation of both first- and second-order vector beams«. The paper appeared published in the first issue of OL in 2016: link

Here we examine the performance of a tunable liquid crystal q-plate in a reflective geometry. When the device is tuned to a half-wave retardance, it operates as a q-plate with twice the value (2q) by adding a quarter-wave retarder between the mirror and the q-plate. However, when the device is tuned to a quarter-wave retardance, it acts as the original q-plate without the retarder. We show experimental results are shown. Using an input tunable polarization state generator, the system allows the switchable production of all states on both the first- and second-order Poincaré spheres.

This work has been done during the stay of Maria M. Sanchez-López and Ignacio Moreno at SDSU during Summer 2015.

TecnOpto has contributed to the International Year of Light event by bringing to UMH the exhibition  Light Beyond the Bulb. This exhibition was hosted at the entrance of the building «Arenals», at the campus of Elche from 1st to 18th November 2015. 

María M. Sánchez-López translated, in collaboration with SEDOPTICA – the Spanish Optical Society has translated to Spanish the panels developed by SPIE. These panels show impressive images of different optical phenomena in very different fields such as astronomy, biology, or commmunications.

The translated panels can be downloaded freely at: link

These panels were printed at UMH with the support of a project from FECYT – Fundación Española de Ciencia y Tecnología (FECYT-FCT-14-9230), and the exhibition will be located permanently at the MUDIC museum – Museo Didáctico e Interactivo de Ciencias, located at the UMH campus at Orihuela.

UMH Press Release (in Spanish)