In a new study, published by the Optical Society, physicists from the Australian National University (ANU) describe a means to generate the highest quality holographic images ever before seen, likened to those used in sci-fi movies such as Star Wars.

According to the article abstract, metasurfaces are used to produce the images by shaping and controlling incident light. Previously, these surfaces were inefficient due to transmission losses from their metallic components. But an alteration using all-dielectric resonant nanophotonic structures bystepped such losses. According to the authors, this makes dielectric metasurfaces a promising, novel platform for flat optical devices, such as waveplates, Q-plates, lenses and holograms.

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