This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Researchers use tightly focused laser beams to image biological samples, shape materials with microscopic precision and generate displays. But using those beams in three dimensions requires more than sweeping light from side to side, as the light must also rapidly refocus at different depths.
That often requires separate optical components, one to steer the light and another to change where it comes into focus. Penn State researchers have developed a state-of-the-art tiny mirror that can do both at record speeds, potentially slimming down and speeding up future optical systems used in brain imaging, augmented reality goggles and precision manufacturing. "Being able to quickly control light in three dimensions with a single device offers a significant improvement in the overall size and weight of an optical system," said Hunter Shillingburg, doctoral student in electrical engineering and first author of the study published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering.
Shillingburg co-authored this study alongside Daniel Lopez, who was affiliated with Penn State's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Materials Research Institute at the time of the research and is currently the chair of the Department of Physics at Arizona State University. For Shillingburg, one potential application stands out: neuroscience. "Although the fields are all strongly related, I see the most potential being in neurobiology," he said.
"The system could lead to smaller, mountable miniature microscopes for studying neurobiology in active subjects as well as lighter glasses and headsets for augmented reality." Neurons, the tightly packed nerve cells that send and receive signals in the brain, can become active in just thousandths of a second. Studying that activity requires fast-acting and precise tools. A small device that rapidly directs a focused beam of light to different spots and depths could eventually help miniature microscopes study brain activity in moving subjects or examine very small regions of the brain.
Faster scanning could have another benefit in biological imaging, Shillingburg said. Sensitive samples can be damaged or fade when exposed to too much light, so reducing exposure time can help researchers image living cells and other biological materials while limiting those effects. At the heart of the tiny device is a micro-electromechanical system, or MEMS, micromirror.
MEMS are tiny machines built on chips using many of the same manufacturing methods used to make computer chips. In addition to electronic components, they can contain microscopic parts designed to physically move or bend. In this device, those parts tilt and reshape a tiny mirror.
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