We participated at FecitElx 2016, the Science and Technology Fair of Elche, organized by our university. This is the second edition of this fair, and this year we contributed with three different events:
1) We showed again our demonstration workshop, where we made different experiments on optics. Kids and paterents enjoyed with us on Friday and Saturday morning at the Elche Congress Center.
2) We brought two exhibitions: Light beyond the bulb, and Women in Light Science and Light Technologies.
3) Finally, we organized a game of laser chess: the KHET tournement. In the picture you can see of the players.
It was a lot of fun!
We published a new paper in Optical Engineering Letters, entitled Generation of vector beams at 1550 nm telecommunications wavelength using a segmented q-plate. The paper appeared published in the third issue of OE journal in 2016.
In this work we present the use of a q-plate device operating at the 1550 nm telecommunications wavelength. A prototype liquid-crystal device from Citizen Holdings Co. is demonstrated to be useful for the generation of vector beams and orbital angular momentum transfer at this important wavelength.
The device was developed for a visible wavelength, but we show here that it can be applied also for the 1550 nm wavelength, where is of interest to apply such devices to multiplex data with OAM channels.
This work was initiated during the stay of María M. Sanchez-López and Ignacio Moreno at SDSU during Summer 2015.
Ignacio Moreno presents an invited communication at the meeting SPIE Photonics Europe held in Brussels in April 2016.
The communication is entitled “Production of arbitrary polarized light beams with a liquid crystal spatial modulator”, and it was presented within the session Optical Micro- and Nanometrology. This communication reviews our recent advances in the design of polarization diffractive optical elements encoded onto a spatial light modulador system.
The paper Nondiffracting Bessel beams with polarization state that varies with propagation distance that we published in Optics Letters last year has been selected in the section SPOTLIGHT ON OPTICS by OSA – the Optical Society of America, specifically in the section devoted to Optical Design and Instrumentation.
This section of the OSA website selects highlighted articles from OSA journals. Our paper in Optics Letters has been receiving considerable impact, since it was for three consecutive months in the TOP10 downloaded papers in the journal.
We published a new paper in Optics Letters entitled Generation of integer and fractional vector beams with q-plates encoded onto a spatial light modulator. The paper appeared published in the sixth issue of OL in 2016.
In this paper we generated programmable vector beams with arbitrary -plates encoded using a spatial light modulator system. Consequently, we have been able to analyze new and exotic -plate designs without the difficulty of fabricating individual plates. For instance, we showed experimental results for positive and negative integer and new fractional vector beam values.
For instance, the picture shows a fractional vector beam where the polarization changes linearly in three sectors along the polar coordinate in the plane traversal to the beam.
This work has been done during the stay of María M. Sanchez-López and Ignacio Moreno at SDSU during Summer 2015.
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 participated at FecitElx 2016, the Science and Technology Fair of Elche, organized by our university. This is the second edition of this fair, and this year we contributed with three different events:
