Alasdair C. Hamilton

Superoscillation in speckle patterns

Waves are superoscillatory where their local phase gradient exceeds the maximum wavenumber in their Fourier spectrum. We consider the superoscillatory area fraction of random optical speckle patterns. This follows from the joint probability density function of intensity and phase gradient for isotropic Gaussian random wave superpositions. Strikingly, this fraction is 1/3 when all the waves in the two-dimensional superposition have the same wavenumber. The fraction is 1/5 for a disk spectrum. Although these superoscillations are weak compared with optical fields with designed superoscillations, they are more stable on paraxial propagation.

Metamaterials for light rays: ray optics without wave-optical analog in the ray-optics limit

Volumes of sub-wavelength electromagnetic elements can act like homogeneous materials: metamaterials. In analogy, sheets of optical elements such as prisms can act ray-optically like homogeneous sheet materials. In this sense, such sheets can be considered to be metamaterials for light rays (METATOYs). METATOYs realize new and unusual transformations of the directions of transmitted light rays. We study here, in the ray-optics and scalar-wave limits, the wave-optical analog of such transformations, and we show that such an analog does not always exist. Perhaps, this is the reason why many of the ray-optical possibilities offered by METATOYs have never before been considered.

Generalized refraction using lenslet arrays

We have recently started to investigate 2D arrays of confocal lens pairs. Miniaturization of the lens pairs can make the array behave ray-optically like a homogeneous medium. Here we generalize the geometry of the lens pairs. These generalizations include a sideways shift of the lens centres and a change in the orientation of both lenses in each pair. We investigate the basic ray optics of the resulting arrays, and illustrate these with movies rendered using ray-tracing software. We suggest that confocal lenslet arrays could be used to realize ray-optically some recent metamaterials concepts such as the coordinate-transform design paradigm.

Local light-ray rotation

We present a sheet structure that rotates the local ray direction through an arbitrary angle around the sheet normal. The sheet structure consists of two parallel Dove-prism sheets, each of which flips one component of the local direction of transmitted light rays. Together, the two sheets rotate transmitted light rays around the sheet normal. We show that the direction under which a point light source is seen is given by a Mobius transform. We illustrate some of the properties with movies calculated by ray-tracing software.

Optical properties of a Dove-prism sheet

A Dove-prism sheet flips one component of the local direction of transmitted light rays. We investigate here the apparent direction in which a point light source is seen through such a sheet. We find that the sheet distorts any straight line normal to the sheet into a hyperbola. We illustrate some of the optical properties of Dove-prism sheets with movies calculated using rendering ray-tracing software.

Experimental demonstration of a light-ray-direction-flipping METATOY based on confocal lenticular arrays

We show, theoretically and experimentally, that a sheet formed by two confocal lenticular arrays can flip one component of the local light-ray direction. Ray-optically, such a sheet is equivalent to a Dove-prism sheet, an example of a METATOY (metamaterial for rays), a structure that changes the direction of transmitted light rays in a way that cannot be performed perfectly wave-optically.

TIM, a ray-tracing program for METATOY research and its dissemination

TIM (The Interactive METATOY) is a ray-tracing program specifically tailored towards our research in METATOYs, which are optical components that appear to be able to create wave-optically forbidden light-ray fields. For this reason, TIM possesses features not found in other ray-tracing programs. TIM can either be used interactively or by modifying the openly available source code; in both cases, it can easily be run as an applet embedded in a web page. Here we describe the basic structure of TIMʼs source code and how to extend it, and we give examples of how we have used TIM in our own research.TIM (The Interactive METATOY) is a ray-tracing program specifically tailored towards our research in METATOYs, which are optical components that appear to be able to create wave-optically forbidden light-ray fields. For this reason, TIM possesses features not found in other ray-tracing programs. TIM can either be used interactively or by modifying the openly available source code; in both cases, it can easily be run as an applet embedded in a web page. Here we describe the basic structure of TIM’s source code and how to extend it, and we give examples of how we have used TIM in our own research.

Imaging with parallel ray-rotation sheets

A ray-rotation sheet consists of miniaturized optical components that function--ray optically--as a homogeneous medium that rotates the local direction of transmitted light rays around the sheet normal by an arbitrary angle [A. C. Hamilton et al., arXiv:0809.2646 (2008)]. Here we show that two or more parallel ray-rotation sheets perform imaging between two planes. The image is unscaled and un-rotated. No other planes are imaged. When seen through parallel ray-rotation sheets, planes that are not imaged appear rotated.

Local Light-Ray Rotation around Arbitrary Axes

We present a sheet-structure design which rotates the direction of incident light rays by an arbitrary angle around an arbitrary, but local, rotation axis. The sheet structure consists of two different parallel Dove-prism sheets, each of which mirrors the light-ray direction with respect to different mirror planes. Together, they result in a rotation of the incident light ray by an arbitrary angle around the direction in which the different mirror planes intersect. We illustrate some of the properties of this sheet structure with images and movies calculated using rendering ray-tracing software.

Experimental demonstration of ray-rotation sheets

We have built microstructured sheets that rotate, on transmission, the direction of light rays by an arbitrary, but fixed, angle around the sheet normal. These ray-rotation sheets comprise two pairs of confocal lenticular arrays. In addition to rotating the direction of transmitted light rays, our sheets also offset ray position sideways on the scale of the diameter of the lenticules. If this ray offset is sufficiently small so that it cannot be resolved, our ray-rotation sheets appear to perform generalized refraction.