Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 31 minutes ago
A multinational research team, including engineers from @cambridgeuniversity and Zhejiang University, has developed a breakthrough in miniaturised spectrometer #technology that could dramatically expand the accessibility and functionality of spectral imaging in everyday devices: eng.cam.ac.uk/news/plastic-precision-scalable-broadband-spectroscopy
They developed a miniaturised broadband spectrometer that works across the visible to short-wave infrared (400–1600 nm) spectrum — using a simple, scalable concept: stress-engineered plastic films coupled with computational spectral reconstruction.
By mechanically programming internal stress into shape memory polymers, the team created tunable #birefringence patterns that act as dispersive #optical elements.
Reference:
Gongyuan Zhang et al. ‘Stress-engineered ultra-broadband spectrometers’. Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu4225
Credit: Gongyuan Zhang.
A multinational research team, including engineers from @cambridgeuniversity and Zhejiang University, has developed a breakthrough in miniaturised spectrometer #technology that could dramatically expand the accessibility and functionality of spectral imaging in everyday devices: eng.cam.ac.uk/news/plastic-precision-scalable-broadband-spectroscopy
They developed a miniaturised broadband spectrometer that works across the visible to short-wave infrared (400–1600 nm) spectrum — using a simple, scalable concept: stress-engineered plastic films coupled with computational spectral reconstruction.
By mechanically programming internal stress into shape memory polymers, the team created tunable #birefringence patterns that act as dispersive #optical elements.
Reference:
Gongyuan Zhang et al. ‘Stress-engineered ultra-broadband spectrometers’. Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu4225
Credit: Gongyuan Zhang.
