Curving light in a record-setting way

Rohan Mishra
Mishra

A team led by scientists and engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Southern California and Washington University in St. Louis has created a unique, record-setting material that can bend one infrared ray of light in two directions.

For the second time in five years, the team created a crystal with the highest degree of what’s known as “double refraction” on earth. This time they beat their own record, and the new higher-performing crystal could lead to innovations in night vision, Lidar, chemical sensing, microscopy and many other applications.

Guodong Ren, a graduate student in the McKelvey School of the Engineering, is co-lead author of the study published in the journal Advanced Materials. Rohan Mishra, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, is a co-author.

Read more on the University of Wisconsin-Madison website.