Image of the Week
Striking images of optics and photonics, contributed by OPN readers
Rainbow Meets Monochrome
Light refracted through a glass door onto black-and-white tiles with geometric shapes creates a vivid spectrum.
—Edgar Guevara, CONAHCYT-UASLP, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
31 May 2024
Droplets on Display
Close-up image of water droplets on a smartphone screen with a light gray background. The droplets show individual pixel colors and also reflect light sources in the room.
—Dirk Voigt, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, Netherlands
24 May 2024
Powerful Burst of Energy
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare, seen in the bright flash on the right, on 14 May 2024. It shows a subset of extreme UV light, colorized in red and yellow, that highlights the extremely hot material in flares.
—NASA/SDO
17 May 2024
Colorful Scattering
The scattering of light creates vivid colors in 12,479 hanging fibers representing 12,479 famous ancient Chinese paintings in a special exhibition at Jiaxing Culture & Art Centre, Jiaxing, China. [OPN 2023 Photo Contest]
—Zhijun Xu, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhejiang, China
10 May 2024
Plasma Ball
Light emissions due to the excitation and ionization of nitrogen gas make the spherical structure of a plasma blob visible in this image of a metallic microphone grill head.
—Brijesh Prithvi, UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
03 May 2024
Laser-Induced Damage
Self-destructive beauty: Image of laser-induced damage on an optical surface recorded with a Nomarski type microscope.
—Lidaris LIDT Service, European Science Photo Competition 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0
26 Apr 2024
Burj Khalifa Lights
It's not Barad-dûr searching for Frodo—it's actually the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. Festooned with LEDs and light beams, the Burj Khalifa puts on a stunning nighttime show, which includes a giant fountain with even more lights.
—Michael Duncan, Optica, USA
19 Apr 2024
Solar Eclipse
The solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 seen through the ocular of a reflective telescope. The photo was taken with a cell phone in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where the eclipse had a maximum of 92%.
—Mariana Alfaro-Gomez, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico
12 Apr 2024
An Eye in the Sky
Image of the night sky in Ediger-Eller, Germany, displays a nice combination of imagination and optical diffraction at work.
—Gerd Leuchs, Optica 2024 President and Max Planck Institute, Germany
05 Apr 2024
Solid Medium–Based SSPM
Spatial self-phase modulation (SSPM) observed on an MoS2-based solid medium. The phase of the laser’s Gaussian beam is modulated to SSPM concentric rings with the help of the solid medium.
—Mahalingam Babu and Pritam Shetty, formerly with IIITDM Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
29 Mar 2024
