Future Smartphones Could Be As Thin As A Credit Card!

It should be possible owing to a new ultra-thin lens, which is so small that more than 1,500 would fit across the width of a human hair.

Friday, September 21, 2012:  The world recently saw the launch of the much-anticipated smartphone: the iPhone 5. It is claimed to be the thinnest, lightest and fastest iPhone ever. "It's so thin and so light, yet iPhone 5 features a larger display, a faster chip, the latest wireless technology, an 8MP iSight camera, and more," claims Cupertino giant Apple. But what if you are told that future smartphones could be as thin as your credit card?

Well, scientists are working on a new ultra-thin lens which could actually lead to smart phones as thin as a credit card in the coming years.

The new distortion-free lens is said to be so small that more than 1,500 would fit across the width of a human hair. In near future, it is likely to replace lenses in applications ranging from mobile phones to cameras to fibre-optic communication systems.

In ACS' journal Nano Letters, Federico Capasso and colleagues explain that the lenses used to focus light in eyeglasses, microscopes and other products use the same basic technology dating to the late 1200s, when spectacle lenses were introduced in Europe.

Existing lenses are neither thin nor flat enough to remove distortions, such as spherical aberration. It is possible to correct these distortions but only through complex solutions, such as multiple lenses that increase weight and take up space. This is the reason why the scientists started working on a new superthin, flat lens to address these issues.

Despite being ultra-thin, the new lens features a resolving power that is said to approach the theoretical limits set by the laws of optics. "The lens surface is patterned with tiny metallic stripes which bend light differently as one moves away from the centre, causing the beam to sharply focus without distorting the images. The current version of the lens works at a specific design wavelength, but the scientists say it can be redesigned for use with broad-band light," the report added.  

Source: news.electronicsforu.com