May 10 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created a hologram that switches between images as it is stretched. The hologram was made using ultra-thin nanostructured surfaces called metasurfaces.
A team of material scientists led by Ritesh Agarwal created the metasurfaces by embedding gold nanorods in polydimethylsiloxane, a stretchable film.
The researchers used computer models to calculate how the holographic pattern would change as the film was stretched. They used the models' data to design holograms able to shift between two or three images.
Researchers described their novel technology in the journal Nano Letters.
"Upon stretching, these devices can switch the displayed holographic image between multiple distinct images," scientists wrote in the paper. "This work opens up the possibilities for stretchable metasurface holograms as flat devices for dynamically reconfigurable optical communication and display."
