Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Science

Focusing and defocusing light without a lens: First demonstration of the structured Montgomery effect in free space

Applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to structure light in custom, repeatable, three-dimensional patterns, all without the use of traditional optical elements like lenses and mirrors. Their breakthrough provid...

Focusing and defocusing light without a lens: First demonstration of the structured Montgomery effect in free space
Image: Phys.org
Applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to structure light in custom, repeatable, three-dimensional patterns, all without the use of traditional optical elements like lenses and mirrors. Their breakthrough provides experimental evidence of a peculiar natural phenomenon that had been confined mostly to theory.

Originally published at Phys.org

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