An optical device includes variable optical material that alters at least one of: incident ambient light, spectral content of incident ambient light or direction of incident ambient light through the optical device in response to a stimulus provided by the device. The device can sense intensity and/or spectral characteristics of ambient light and provide appropriate stimulus to various portions of the optical device to activate the variable optical material and alter at least one of: incident ambient light, spectral content of incident ambient light or direction of incident ambient light.

Intelligent control of solar transmission through windows promises to reduce energy consumption for thermal comfort in buildings. However, the ability of current smart windows to regulate solar gain based on tunable extinction of phase-change materials is not optimum. A thin-film thermochromic device based on tunable light scattering of hydrogel microparticles of prescribed diameters is reported. In the study, poly (N-isopropylacrylamide)-2-Aminoethylmethacrylate hydrochloride (pNIPAm-AEMA) microparticles are synthesized, with low phase transition temperature ˜32° C. Notably, the average size of pNIPAm-AEMA particles can vary from 1388 nm at 25° C. to 546 nm at 35° C., leading to unprecedented infrared transmittance modulation of 75.6%, in agreement with the numerical simulation based on Mie theory. A high luminous transmittance of 87.2% is accomplished. The pNIPAm-AEMA device demonstrates tunable scattering with excellent stability and scalability, which may find application in a broader field of light management beyond energy-saving smart windows.

An optical waveguide device includes a substrate on which an optical waveguide is formed, and an object that is disposed on the substrate. The optical waveguide includes a mode conversion/branching portion that converts a mode of a light wave propagating through the optical waveguide and branches the light wave, and the object is disposed to cover a part or the whole of the mode conversion/branching portion or not to cover the mode conversion/branching portion when the substrate is viewed in a plan view. In a case where the object is disposed to cover a part of the mode conversion/branching portion, the object is disposed not to consecutively cover a section over a length of a predetermined value or higher in an advancing direction of a light wave.

A system and method for synchronizing a data stream. The system may include one or more acoustic sources, an information handling system disposed on a platform, a GPS module connected to the information handling system, and a fiber optic cable connected to the information handling system. The method may include transmitting one or more acoustic waves from one or more acoustic sources, sensing the one or more acoustic waves with a fiber optic cable to form a data stream, sending the data stream to an information handling system through the fiber optic cable, communication a time and a location to a GPS module attached to the information handling system with one or more global positioning system (GPS) devices, and modulating the time and the location to the data stream with a fiber optic phase modulator.

A system for optically modulating a plurality of optical channels includes a power delivery module adapted to convert a coherent light beam into a plurality of optical channels, at least one optical modulator, optically coupled to the power delivery module, the at least one optical modulator adapted to optically modulate each of the plurality of the optical channels, and a vacuum chamber having a trapping plane therein, the vacuum chamber adapted to generate an addressable array of trapped particles at the trapping plane, wherein each of the plurality of optical channels is optically coupled to at least one of the trapped particles of the addressable array.

The present invention belongs to the field of integrated optical waveguide modulation, and specifically, relates to an ultra-close-range metallic heater thermo-optic phase shifter, which includes: a substrate, and a metallic heater and an optical waveguide respectively arranged on the substrate; in which the metallic heater and the optical waveguide are arranged at a close distance, and the distance is less than 600 nm. The material of the metallic heater is titanium, titanium nitride, aluminum, gold, and/or a metal with a larger imaginary part of the refractive index. The present invention includes two solutions: side heating and top surface heating. In the side heating solution, the heater is placed close to a side of the waveguide in parallel, and heat is conducted to the optical waveguide through the substrate to achieve thermo-optic phase shift; while in the top surface heating solution, an auxiliary waveguide is placed on a side of the optical waveguide, and the heater is placed above the auxiliary waveguide; heat is conducted to the optical waveguide through a top silicon oxide layer to achieve thermo-optic phase shift. The present invention utilizes the principle of parity-time symmetry, greatly shortens the distance between the heaters and the waveguide, realizes low-loss and high-rate thermo- optic modulation. In addition, it is compatible with the CMOS process, and is a standard process.

A time-varying optical metasurface, comprising a plurality of modulated nano-antennas configured to vary dynamically over time. The metasurface may be implemented as part of an optical isolator, wherein the time-varying metasurface provides uni-directional light flow. The metasurface allows the breakage of Lorentz reciprocity in time-reversal. The metasurface may operate in a transmission mode or a reflection mode.

Provided are a magneto-optical material capable of enhancing the tunable range of magneto-optical properties such as the Faraday rotation angle, and a method for producing the same. The temperature of a substrate 20 is controlled to a first temperature within the range of 300 to 800 [° C.], and the atmospheric pressure of the substrate 20 is controlled to 1.0×10.sup.−4 [Pa] or less (first step). Using a composite target or plurality of individual targets of a TCO material exhibiting ENZ properties in the infrared wavelength region, together with a magnetic metal, a magneto-optical material 10 is deposited on the substrate 20 while the temperature of the substrate 20 is controlled to a second temperature within the range of 300 to 800 [° C.], and the atmospheric pressure of the substrate 20 is controlled to the range of 0.1 to 10 [Pa] (second step).

To a co-precipitating aqueous solution, aqueous solutions containing (a) Tb ions, (b) at least one other rare earth ions selected from the group consisting of Y ions and lanthanoid rare earth ions (excluding Tb ions), (c) Al ions and (d) Sc ions are added; the resulting solution is stirred at a liquid temperature of 50° C. or less to induce a co-precipitate of the components (a), (b), (c) and (d); the co-precipitate is filtered, heated and dehydrated; and the co-precipitate is fired thereafter at from 1,000° C. to 1,300° C., thereby forming a sinterable garnet-type complex oxide powder.

The present invention provides a backlight module and a display device. A first notch is defined in a back plate of the backlight module. The first notch corresponds to a second notch defined in the display panel, and a light source set is disposed on the back plate located on two sides of the first notch, which lowers a dimension of a lower bezel of the display device and enhances a screen ratio such that light of the backlight module entering the display panel becomes more uniform, which enhances the differential performance of the products and improves the market competitiveness of the products.