DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

UCL and Cardiff University collaborators have pioneered a prototype for a new microwave optical device. Designed, built and tested by the collaboration, this device could provide a practical solution for many manufacturing concepts which have previously been limited to theoretical speculation.

Complex optics are used in both communication and science satellites, often with bulky polymer lenses and frequency selective filters. The UCL/ Cardiff collaboration have succeeded in combing the optical theory, used to design graded lens in the optical, with manufacturing technology used in the microwave region. Resulting in an optical device comprised of a thin, flat lens which acts as a filter while focusing light. It weighs a fifth of its bulky, classical equivalent and operates in a relatively wide spectral range.