Researchers in Switzerland invent a new type of pixel
Popular Science...
Every single day, we’re constantly looking at pixels. The tiny elements make up the displays on our phone screens and televisions, and allow us to capture images on digital cameras. Generally, a pixel works by either controlling light (think a computer) or analyzing it (like a camera sensor). Now, researchers writing in the journal Nature say they’ve created a pixel that can do both.
Called a Fourier pixel, the new pixel tech is based on a fundamental principle of physics: interference. When light is scattered by a surface, the waves can overlap with each other, even if they originated from different points. When two or more light waves overlap, they reinforce each other. If the light waves are out of step, they cancel each other out.
The new pixels use this phenomenon to control light with wave-shaped sculpted surfaces. The name Fourier pixel comes from Fourier analysis—a mathematical process that the team used to break down and understand how the waves behaved. Each patterned area, or pixel, turns light into a surface wave that travels along the chip’s surface. Then, in a different place within the pixel, the surface wave is scattered back out as a light wave. These scattered lightwaves can be used to generate colored images.
In other words, the researchers carved tiny patterns into a chip that allows them to control how light waves combine. These patterns allowed them to create pixels that both steer and analyze light.
“Thanks to the fact that the relevant surface profiles of the pixels can be determined using Fourier analysis, we can combine the control and analysis of amplitude, phase and polarisation on a single pixel,” said Sander Vonk, a study co-author and postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, in a statement. He added that Fourier analysis is mathematically simple, and does not require complex models.
The findings could have far-ranging technological applications in the future. “Our new pixels for control and analysis could, therefore, become a useful tool in many areas,” said David Norris, a study co-author and materials engineer at ETH Zurich.
One day, we might even have pixels that both capture an image and process it without needing a computer.
But in the short term, the team has more practical goals. They want to create a matrix of Fourier pixels that could be used to make more complex camera display devices. Still, you might have a future laptop screen capable of taking your photo.
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