The new technology uses photoswitch molecules to
The economical method for shaping light into an infinite number of volumetric objects would be useful in a variety of fields, from biomedical imaging, education and engineering, to TV, movies, video games and more.
"Our idea was to use chemistry and special photoswitch molecules to make a 3-D display that delivers a 360-degree view," Lippert said. "It's not a hologram, it's really three-dimensionally structured light."
Key to the technology is a molecule that switches between non-fluorescent and fluorescent in reaction to the presence or absence of ultraviolet light.
The new technology is not a hologram, and differs from 3-D movies or 3-D computer design. Those are flat displays that use binocular disparity or linear perspective to make objects appear three-dimensional when in fact they only have height and width and lack a true volume profile.
"When you see a 3-D movie, for example, it's tricking your brain to see 3-D by presenting two different images to each eye," Lippert said. "Our display is not tricking your brain—we've used chemistry to structure light in three actual dimensions, so no tricks, just a real three-dimensional light structure. We call it a 3-D digital light photoactivatable dye display, or 3-D Light Pad for short, and it's much more like what we see in real life."
At the heart of the SMU 3-D Light Pad technology is a "photoswitch" molecule, which can switch from colorless to fluorescent when shined with a beam of ultraviolet light.
The researchers discovered a chemical innovation for tuning the photoswitch molecule's rate of thermal fading—its on-off switch—by adding to it the chemical amine base triethylamine.
Now the sky is the limit for the new SMU 3-D Light Pad technology, given the many possible uses, said Lippert, an expert in fluorescence and chemiluminescence—using chemistry to explore the interaction between light and matter.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-star-wars-chemistry-discovery-yields.html#jCp
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