Extensive photochemical restructuring of molecule-metal surfaces under room light.

The molecule-metal interface is of paramount importance for many devices and processes, and directly involved in photocatalysis, molecular electronics, nanophotonics, and molecular (bio-)sensing. Here the photostability of this interface is shown to be sensitive even to room light levels for specific molecules and metals. Optical spectroscopy is used to track photoinduced migration of gold atoms when functionalised with different thiolated molecules that form uniform monolayers on Au. Nucleation and growth of characteristic surface metal nanostructures is observed from the light-driven adatoms. By watching the spectral shifts of optical modes from nanoparticles used to precoat these surfaces, we identify processes involved in the photo-migration mechanism and the chemical groups that facilitate it. This photosensitivity of the molecule-metal interface highlights the significance of optically induced surface reconstruction. In some catalytic contexts this can enhance activity, especially utilising atomically dispersed gold. Conversely, in electronic device applications such reconstructions introduce problematic aging effects.

Simulation of the viewing properties and optical compensation of the biaxial nematic in-plane switching mode.

Using Berreman 4 × 4 optical methods and continuum theory, we investigate the theoretical viewing properties of a potential homeotropically aligned biaxial nematic display switched with in-plane fields. We determine the isocontrast, isotransmission viewing characteristics for wide-angle viewing for in-plane switching and consider the necessary requirements for optical compensation to produce a high transmission in the bright state and low transmission in the dark state. We show how compensation can be achieved with biaxial compensation layers using a homogeneous biaxial film or from birefringence.

Computer generated holograms from three dimensional meshes using an analytic light transport model.

We present a method to analytically compute the light distribution of triangles directly in frequency space. This allows for fast evaluation, shading, and propagation of light from 3D mesh objects using angular spectrum methods. The algorithm complexity is only dependent on the hologram resolution and the polygon count of the 3D model. In contrast to other polygon based computer generated holography methods we do not need to perform a Fourier transform per surface. The theory behind the approach is derived, and a suitable algorithm to compute a digital hologram from a general triangle mesh is presented. We review some first results rendered on a spatial-light-modulator-based display by our proof-of-concept software.

Computer generated holography using parallel commodity graphics hardware.

This paper presents a novel method for using programmable graphics hardware to generate fringe patterns for SLM-based holographic displays. The algorithm is designed to take the programming constraints imposed by the graphics hardware pipeline model into consideration, and scales linearly with the number of object points. In contrast to previous methods we do not have to use the Fresnel approximation. The technique can also be used on several graphics processors in parallel for further optimization. We achieve real-time frame rates for objects consisting of a few hundred points at a resolution of 960x600 pixels and over 10 frames per second for 1000 points.