The USC-OSA Student Chapter and USC-EPS Young Minds Section is a group financed by The Optical Society (OSA) and the European Physical Society (EPS). It is formed by PhD and degree students from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) and one supervisor of the Faculty of Physics. Its main goal is to promote and diffuse Optics in the society. For this purpose, the group carries out several activities in the academic and non-academic community. The group is also committed to the professional development of our members and motivates the exposition of our work into the scientific community.
A preclinical device that mimics half blood vessel by using laser technologies has been developed. By employing a Nd:YVO4 laser a channel has been manufactured over soda-lime glass. Using a CO2 laser combined with a roller furnace, a thermal treatment has been applied to the channel to enhance its quality. The glass structure was employed as master to replicate the channel in PDMS by soft-lithography. To avoid the deterioration of the PDMS, channels were coated with three different sol-gel coatings compositions. Endothelial cells were cultured over the channels to determine the most suitable surface for cell growing.
USC-OSA is a student chapter whose objective is to bring Optics knowledge closer to the non-optics community. The activity developed at the Hospital school was one of the most important last year. It was consisted in a few Optics experiments and workshops with hospitalized children of different ages and pathologies. The experiments had to be adapted to their physical conditions with the aim of everyone could participate. We think this activity has several benefits including spreading Optics through children meanwhile they have fun and forget their illness for a while.
KEYWORDS: Photonics, Projection systems, Astronomy, Mirrors, Colorimetry, Linear filtering, Social networks, Prisms, Optical filters, Education and training
The USC-OSA Student Chapter has been constituted in March 2013 by members of the University of Santiago de
Compostela (USC) in Spain and sponsored by The Optical Society of America (OSA). It is formed by five graduate and
one undergraduate students with the common interest in Optics and Photonics research and a professor of the USC is
also involved as a faculty advisor. We decided to start this group with the aim of involving kids, precollege and
undergraduate students in the world of Optics and Photonics. The activities that the USC-OSA Student Chapter members
intend to realize are mainly educational tasks for the spreading of knowledge in Photonics by means of basic
experiments, demonstrations and lectures by leading researchers and teachers. Most of the needed resources to
accomplish these activities are provided by the OSA, such as educational posters and a portable kit for demonstrating
Optics to students. At this moment the USC-OSA Student Chapter is carrying out several activities, as educational
journeys at the Santiago de Compostela University Hospital Complex (CHUS), where hospitalized children can approach
to Optics through some simple experiments and games. A teaching program is also being organized in collaboration with
Galician secondary schools in order to show students the importance and uses of Optics and Photonics and to arouse
their interest in this field, as well as encouraging them to develop their scientific thinking. Another activity will take
place in November during the Science Week, which includes a program of lectures targeted to undergraduate students
and an exposition of several demonstrations
Nowadays, new technologies have great influence on our lives and how we access to the information. The new generations have never known a world without them and make use of these new technologies in practically all facets of their day-to-day. Education systems have also evolved rapidly and frequently make use of learning strategies based on interactive tools. In this work we have created a graphical user interface with GUIDE, a development environment of MATLAB, to show, in a simple way, how the eye works. This interactive program is addressed to the first courses of secondary education and designed to introduce them to the basic concepts of the normal refractive condition of the eye and the most common refractive errors, as myopia and hyperopia. The graphic interface makes use of the simplified model of the eye, where the optic system of the visual organ is represented by a converging lens (cornea and crystalline) and a screen (retina). Emmetropic, myopic and hyperopic eye operation is shown graphically to the students, as well as how these focusing errors can be solved with a diverging and converging lens, respectively. This teaching tool was used this academic course in the Colegio Hogar de Santa Margarita (A Coruña) for a better understanding of the students in this matter and to catch their attention to the world of Optics and its importance.
New technologies and the available computing tools are becoming more important every day in the teaching evolution. The use of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) with MATLAB enables the implementation of practical teaching methodologies to make easier the comprehension of a given subject. In this work, we report on the application of GUIs in order to provide the students with a simple tool for a better understanding on how to design GRIN elements for optical systems. Another GUIs advantage is that they can be converted to an executable file, so any student could use the interface in their own computer without having a MATLAB license. We present a graphical interface to show the performance of an optical device for controlling beam size and for deflecting light for coupling purposes, by a simple geometrical optics study, in a tapered GRIN lens illuminated by a parallel beam of tilted rays. We also show a graphical interface to obtain the maximum coupling efficiency between fundamental modes of two single-mode fibers by a scaling operation carried out by a GRIN fiber lens. With this interface the students can vary the magnification and the image plane in order to get the more suitable GRIN fiber lens to maximize the coupling efficiency between two fibers.
In this paper we present an active GRadient-INdex (GRIN) beam shaper with gain for Gaussian to flat-top beam conversion. This extra-cavity beam shaper is based in the proper design of an active GRIN selfoc rod microlens in order to perform the beam shaping operation. General condition for obtaining beam shaping by active GRIN rod microlenses is shown. Irradiance evolution through the active material for a laser beam operating at 1550 nm and 1.25 mm beam half-width is simulated and the shaping length in each case is determined. The active GRIN beam shaper is sensitive to deviations from design laser parameters such as wavelength and beam diameter, what can have great influence on the output flat-top beam quality. Variations on the design length of the shaper due to fabrication process errors can also emerge on unwanted output irradiance profiles. Here we analyze the sensitivity of the active GRIN beam shaper to the wavelength and beam half-width of the input Gaussian beam, as well as to the length of the GRIN rod lens in order to design a beam shaper that meets requirements within an acceptable tolerance. In this way, flatness quality of the output irradiance profile is examined. For the active beam shaper reported, microlens thickness, input wavelength and beam half-width tolerances are 10%, 10% and 5%, respectively.
Beam transformations process by active materials allows, in a controlled manner, the redistribution of the irradiance and
phase of light. A material that exhibits quadratic gain or loss and refractive index profiles is regarded as active GRIN
(GRadient-INdex) material. Complex refractive index is examined in order to discuss what loss or gain means in terms
of the refractive index. General conditions for beam transformations by active GRIN materials are obtained in a 2D
space of the complex curvature. Irradiance evolution through an active selfoc microlens is presented and it is analyzed at
planes where beam shaping occurs.
Effects of gain or loss on the propagation of light beams through active GRIN media are discussed. Complex refractive
indices are studied to discuss what gain or loss means in terms of the real and imaginary parts of them. The real part of
the refractive index determines the guidance behavior of the active material and the gain or loss is determined by the sign
of the imaginary part of the refractive index. Comparison between Gaussian beam propagation in active GRIN media
with parabolic refractive index profile and hyperbolic secant refractive index profile is outlined.
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