SPIE Student Chapter – IIT Madras

Chennai – 600036, India

Invited talks

1. As part of the activities conducted by the IIT Madras chapter there was an

invited talk by Prof. Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, University of Waterloo

on 23rd July, 2014. His talk was on “The Sunstone and Polarized Skylight:

Ancient Viking Navigational Tools?” He is presently a visiting Professor of

Physics and EE at the University of Michigan. He is a fellow of OSA, SPIE,

IEEE, APS, IOP etc. Recent awards include SPIE Optics Educator (2011),

Esther Hoffman Beller of OSA. He received his M.Sc. in theoretical physics

from Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai and Ph.D. from Berkeley. He is

in the global steering committee of the International Year of Light.

Abstract of the talk:

The Vikings landed in north America around 1000 about 500 years before

Christopher Columbus. How did they cross the stormy and cloud/fog covered

north Atlantic? This was also about 300 years before the invention of the

magnetic compass. It is possible that the Vikings used the polarization of the sky

in conjunction with calcite (the sunstone referred to in Viking legends) a doubly

refracting crystal and the Haidinger‟s brushes phenomenon to detect the position

of the sun.

Details of the chapters activities since last report to March-2015:

Invited Talks:

Annual Report

Prof. Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan being felicitated after his talk

2. By the month of September-2014, on behalf of SPIE Student Chapter-IIT

Madras, we have invited Prof.Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri, University of

Connecticut, USA for a special lecture. After his talk, he also donated his book

called “Causal Physics: An engineer’s journey to visualize the invisible

interaction processes" to our chapter advisor.

Abstract of the talk: Since very ancient times human species has succeeded in

accelerating its rate of evolution through innovations of tools and technologies by

emulating nature allowed processes in different permutations and combinations

irrespective of whether they had the FINAL theories for the relevant phenomena

under consideration. Today we have entered the Knowledge Age through our

skills in generating, manipulating, propagating and then detecting electrons and

photons. But we still do not know what exactly electrons and photons are made

of! Physics can remain connected to nature‟s causal realities if we consistently

keep on asking questions that help us understand the real physical processes

going on in nature. Here are some typical questions by an engineer thriving on

Physics & Optics.

What are the physical processes behind the appearance of the spectral fringe

broadening corroborating Time-Frequency Fourier Transform (TF-FT) when we

analyze a pulsed light? What are the physical processes behind the appearance of

the far-field diffraction pattern due to a single slit, which corroborate the Space-

Space Fourier Transform (SS-FT)? What are the physical processes behind the

appearance of the superposition (interference) cosine fringes under the single slit

diffraction envelope in the far-field diffraction pattern due to a double-slit? Are

the spectral and spatial resolution limits due to the Uncertainty Principle of

nature; or, are they limitations of our theories and technologies?

Is superluminal velocity physically real; or, limitations of our theories and

interpretations? Are the Doppler effects for sound waves and optical waves

fundamentally different? For sound the source and detector velocities with

respect to the stationary air is clearly discernable. Is such discernibility an

irrelevant search for EM wave Doppler effect? How do, the randomly moving

excited detecting-atoms before responding to a stimulating photon (in a gas

laser), know their relative velocities with the source atoms (the mother of the

distant spontaneous emissions)? Is the space between atoms inside a gas laser

tube fundamentally different from those between atoms in the corona of distant

stars? Evolution Congruent Thinking leads to better answers! All these and

innumerable other questions tend to facilitate causal answers: (i) if we explicitly

recognize Non-Interaction of Waves (NIW) that is waves in the linear domain do

not interact (interfere) to reorganize their spatial and temporal energy

distributions by themselves in the linear domain in the absence of some

interacting medium; and

(ii) if we accept the space as a Complex Tension Field (CTF) that is responsible

in enabling the perpetual highest velocity c to all EM waves across the entire

galaxy without any velocity-related contributions from the emitters.

Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri during his lecture at IIT Madras, Chennai.

Audience visited during the talk of Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri at IIT Madras

Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri (left)

receiving memento from Prof AR Ganesan.

Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri (left)

donating his book to Prof AR Ganesan

. . . . .

After his wonderful talk on wave and

particle nature of light, as a token of

respect a memento was given on behalf of

SPIE Student Chapter–IIT Madras. The

memento was given by the faculty advisor

of the IIT Madras SPIE Student Chapter,

Prof. AR Ganesan (Right side)

3. The second talk for the year was organized during the month of February.

Prof.S.Anantha Ramakrishna from Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur was

invited for the talk. He presented on the topic of “Active Materials perfect

absorbers”

Abstract of the talk:

Composite structured materials, also called metamaterials, now offer an alternate

route to optical device design by offering material properties that are not

normally available in natural materials. Unique phenomena such as negative

refraction, perfect lenses to focus beyond the diffraction limit, cloaking for

electromagnetic invisibility etc. have been made possible by metamaterials.

Nearly perfect absorbers made of metamaterial structures, with absorption

exceeding 99% with specified frequency bands can be designed by a proper

impedance matching of the radiation to a resonant structure at frequencies across

the electromagnetic spectrum from the microwaves to the optical. The impedance

matching is achieved by using metamaterial structures that have almost

degenerate electric and magnetic resonances at the frequency of interest. These

absorbers are interesting for various applications such as frequency selective

sensitizer layers for thermal bolometers and detectors, sensors, solar cells,

imaging devices and thermal emitters.

In this lecture, I will review our recent work on the design, fabrication and

characterization of perfectly absorbing metamaterials. I will discuss a variety of

metamaterial structures with very large resonant absorption at bands over the

near-infra-red wavelengths to long-wave infra-red wavelengths and show how

these metamaterials can have a switchable character by incorporating in them

phase change materials such as vanadium dioxide.

4. On March 11th 2015, SPIE student chapter and OSA student chapter of IIT

Madras jointly organized an invited talk. The speaker of the talk is Dr.Siddharth

Ramachandran, ECE department & Photonics center, Boston University,

Boston, MA, USA. This talk was organized as a part of spreading International

Year of Light.

Abstract of the talk:

In the last decade, some of the most extensively studied complex light beams are

optical vortices, which possess phase or polarization singularities. These beams

are interesting because they resemble the emission patterns of single molecule

diploes, or because they potentially represent an infinite set of eigenstates that

can be constructed with light. Their use has been demonstrated in, or proposed

for, several applications such as higher-dimensional quantum encryption,

information capacity scaling, single-molecule spectroscopy and nano-scale

imaging.

A recently developed fiber that has a ring-shaped core has enabled their stable

generation and propagation in optical fibers for distances up to km. Since fibers

are well known for their ability to offer nonlinear dispersive tailoring of light, this

additionally opens the door to studying and exploiting nonlinear phenomena with

such beams. The talk discussed about the recent results and intriguing

possibilities enabled by fiber propagation of beams that have been considered

interesting, but hitherto unstable in nature.

Dr.Siddharth Ramachandran during his lecture at IIT Madras, Chennai.

Audience visited during Dr.Siddharth’s talk at IIT Madras

On 17th October, 2014 free spectacles were distributed as part of the SPIE

outreach programme to poor students in government school at Chennai after

testing their vision.

Prof A R Ganesan, Faculty Advisor, SPIE Student Chapter-IIT Madras giving free spectacle

to a student

SPIE student chapter along with OSA student chapter & Optical society of

India, IIT Madras has jointly organized for a school children science

demonstration. More than 150 school children from different schools around

various parts of the city had participated in the science demonstration and

technical quizzes. The event was named as “Optics Esposizione”. As the year

2015 is proclaimed as the “International Year of Light (IYL) and light-based

technologies” by the United Nations (UN), the optics community of IIT Madras

had organized such an event to bring out the awareness about the awareness and

advancements in the light and light based technologies at different levels.

Talks on history and relevance of optics in everyday lives

Experiments by school students from different schools in Chennai, India.

Photography exhibition for students

Quizzes – School level and Under Graduate level

Research exposition

Event: 1

Highlights of the event

Event: 2

Prof C.Vijayan during his lecture at IIT Madras, Chennai.

Prof Anil Prabhakar receiving the memento from a student of IIT Madras, Chennai.

Written test were conducted for school students. There were two set of quiz

competitions happened - Individual and group competition. For individual quiz, a

written quiz was conducted for the entire students participated in the quiz and the

winner was selected.

For group competition, four students per school formed a group and participated

in the competition. The top five groups were selected for the second round of oral

quiz. Top three schools were selected from the oral quiz competition.

Students attending the quiz competition

Sishya school students exhibiting their experiment

Quiz Competition

Science Exhibition

Professors evaluating the demonstration

There were around 12 schools showed their demonstrations. Starting from

bending of light to satellite communications, students have showcased their

knowledge in optics with simple experiments.

Science Exhibition first prize winners receiving the medal from SPIE Student

chapter president Udayakumar

Prize distribution

Prize winners of quiz competition awarded by Prof. C.Vijayan, IIT Madras

Science Exhibition first prize winners receiving the medal and cash prize from

SPIE Student chapter faculty advisor AR Ganesan, IIT Madras

Name and email address of our SPIE Student Chapter officers:

S.No Designation / Posting Name Email address

1 Faculty advisor Dr. A.R.Ganesan arg@iitm.ac.in

2 President K.Udayakumar udaya.me@gmail.com

Details of planned activities for the future

1. Industrial tours to Pondicherry and Karnataka having optical factories are

planned.

2. To conduct vision screening and distribute free spectacles to

underprivileged school children.

3. To demonstrate basic optics experiments to school children.

4. We are also planning to invite experts in the field of „Optics and

Photonics‟ for invited talks and interaction with students.

5. Seminar talks by the members of the chapter will be continued.

Financial Statement 2014-2015

Details of the Chapter’s Bank Account:

Name of the Account : IIT Madras SPIE Student Chapter

Account No : 34138480114

SHIFT SBININBB453 SHIFT CODE: 1055

Bank : State Bank of India, IIT Madras

Branch : IIT Madras

Amount details:

Closing Balance (as on March 31st -2014) : 2,18,268/-

Transaction details:

Income:

I. Interest Credited : 11,632/

II. SPIE SOAP fund credited on April 25th

2014 : 3,03,800/

III. Balance of symposium expenses credited : 90,000/-

Total : 6,23,700/-

Expenditure:

1.Vision check-up for school students & issuing of spectacles : 2,08,972/-

2. For invited talk of Prof Vasudevan lakshminarayanan,

on July 23rd

2014 : 9609/-

3. For invited talk of Prof Chandrasekar Roychoudhuri

on September 25th

2014 : 9310/-

4. For invited talk of Prof S.Anatha Ramakrishnan

on February 26th

2015 : 9034/-

5. For invited talk of Prof Siddharth Ramachandran

on March 11th

2015 : 1125/-

6. Optics Esposizione, April 18th

2015 : 55,816/-

Total : 2,93,866/-

Financial status from April 2014 to April 2015

Opening Balance (as on 31.03.2014) : Rs. 2,18,268/-

(Refer : Income I)

Income : Rs. 4,05,432/-

(Refer: II. SIPE SOAP fund +III. Symposium balance)

Expenses : Rs. 2,93,866/-

(Refer: Expenditure)

Closing Balance as on April 30th 2015 : Rs 3,29,834/-