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US 12,345,993 B2Granted
Light control by means of forced translation, rotation, orientation, and deformation of particles using dielectrophoresis
OwnerLeo D. Didomenicoinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and embodiments are provided for the coordinated translation, rotation, and deformation of swarms of nanoparticles by means of forced diffusion by dielectrophoresis in order to affect the scattering of light and the synthesis of the central quantity to all optics: refractive index. Applications include electronic beam steering of light, concentration of sunlight, augmented reality displays, and medical diagnostics, and many others.
Claims25
An apparatus comprising:
- a dielectrophoresis-based device configured to optically modify an input light field, the dielectrophoresis-based device comprises;
- (a) a plurality of distinct and separate particles;
- (b) at least one transparent medium;
- (c) at least one light scattering control volume;
- (d) at least one source of electromagnetic fields separate and distinct from the input light field;
- wherein said plurality of distinct and separate particles is mixed with said at least one transparent medium to form a substantially transparent non-solid medium, which is a mixture, and where said plurality of distinct and separate particles can distribute in said mixture within said at least one light scattering control volume, where there are also electromagnetic fields from said at least one source of electromagnetic fields, so that at least one of a particle force, a particle torque, and a particle stress on each of said plurality of distinct and separate particles may exist by means of generalized dielectrophoresis, which allows for a selective determination of at least one of a particle position, a particle orientation, and a particle shape of some portion of said plurality of distinct and separate particles to change by forced diffusion processes, using a function of harmonic field strength and frequency, wherein particles exhibit a nontrivial steady-state orientation, which can be determined as non-parallel to the electric field lines;
- an input light field interacts with said mixture by at least one of:
- traversing the mixture directly and/or traversing the mixture by evanescent fields at an optical boundary between said mixture and a region external to said at least one light scattering control volume;
- wherein said input light field is transformed into an output light field having different properties including at least one of direction, linear momentum, spin angular momentum, polarization, orbital angular momentum, irradiance, frequency, photon energy, angular spread, power, and information content, all by a graded refractive index that is created in both time and space as needed by controlling said at least one source of electromagnetic fields.
6 more elements
A dielectrophoresis-based device for scattering an input light field, comprising;
- (a) a plurality of distinct and separate particles;
- (b) at least one transparent medium;
- (c) at least one light scattering control volume;
- (d) at least one source of electromagnetic fields;
- wherein said plurality of distinct and separate particles is mixed with said at least one transparent medium to form a substantially transparent non-solid medium, which is a mixture, and where said plurality of distinct and separate particles can distribute in said mixture within said at least one light scattering control volume, where there are also electromagnetic fields from said at least one source of electromagnetic fields, so that at least one of a particle force, a particle torque, and particle stress on each of said plurality of distinct and separate particles may exist by means of generalized dielectrophoresis, which allows at least one of a particle position, a particle orientation, and a particle shape of some portion of said plurality of distinct and separate particles to change by forced diffusion processes so that optical properties of said mixture can change, so that an input light interacts with said mixture by at least one of:
- traversing the mixture directly and/or traversing the mixture by evanescent fields at an optical boundary between said mixture and a region external to said at least one light scattering control volume;
- wherein said input light field can be transformed into an output light field having different properties including at least one of direction, linear momentum, spin angular momentum, polarization, orbital angular momentum, irradiance, frequency, photon energy, angular spread, power, and information content, all by a graded refractive index that is created in both time and space as needed by controlling said at least one source of electromagnetic fields;
- and said plurality of distinct and separate particles comprise at least one of a dielectric, a semiconductor, and soft matter such as an emulsion.
5 more elements
A dielectrophoresis-based device for scattering an input light field, comprising;
- (a) a plurality of distinct and separate particles;
- (b) at least one transparent medium;
- (c) at least one light scattering control volume;
- (d) at least one source of electromagnetic fields;
- wherein said plurality of distinct and separate particles is mixed with said at least one transparent medium to form a substantially transparent non-solid medium, which is a mixture, and where said plurality of distinct and separate particles can distribute in said mixture within said at least one light scattering control volume, where there are uniform electromagnetic fields from said at least one source of electromagnetic fields, so that at least one of a particle force, a particle torque, and particle stress on each of said plurality of distinct and separate particles may exist by means of generalized dielectrophoresis, which allows at least one of a particle position, a particle orientation, and a particle shape of some portion of said plurality of distinct and separate particles to change by forced diffusion processes so that optical properties of said mixture can change, so that an input light interacts with said mixture by at least one of:
- traversing the mixture directly and/or traversing the mixture by evanescent fields at an optical boundary between said mixture and a region external to said at least one light scattering control volume;
- wherein said input light field can be transformed into an output light field having different properties including at least one of direction, linear momentum, spin angular momentum, polarization, orbital angular momentum, irradiance, frequency, photon energy, angular spread, power, and information content, all by a graded refractive index that is created in both time and space as needed by controlling said at least one source of electromagnetic fields.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.