Optical Instrumentation
Members of the Academic Staff
The Optical Instrumentation Group works on methods and optical instrumentation for the analysis of different specimens: rough surfaces, microscopic biological organisms and highly scattering objects. Their projects involve different aspects, from the optical design, construction and alignment of the systems, data analysis, test and calibration. In particular, the Group works on the design and numerical analysis of optical systems for the focusing of ultrashort pulses, microscopy for the study of biological samples, measurment problems and polarization control and coherence, diffraction and Fourier Optics. The Group includes a workshop dedicated to the measurement of the wavefront produced by optical surfaces using interferometry.
![Images of Helminth eggs obtained with a home-made low-cost optical microscope.](https://www.icat.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Helminth.jpg)
![Traditional polishing of optical surfaces.](https://www.icat.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/maquina_pulido.jpg)
![Construction of a Fizeau interferometer for measuring an optical surface.](https://www.icat.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/implementacion_inter.jpg)
![Stokes polarimeter built in the group using liquid crystals retarders.](https://www.icat.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/polarimetro.jpg)
![Stokes vector produced by a novel source designed in our group to control the coherence and polarization of light. (a) S1 , (b) S2, and (c) S3. Note that in (c) the central spot has right circular polarization, while the other two spots are left circular polarized light.](https://www.icat.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/stokes.jpg)
Instrumentation and applications of optical polarimetry
Polarization images using liquid-crystal variable retarders.
Modelling and measurementof an aberrated wavefront using Zernike polynomials, applied to the focusing of femtosecond pulses.
Construction of an automatic, low-cost optical microscopy.
Polarimetric microscopy for the analysis of semitransparent samples in water.
Wavefront measurement using interferometry for optical surface characterization.