A Low-Light Vision Protective Contact Lens

Sight is arguably one of humankind’s most important senses. The eye is an incredible organ with excellent performance in good lighting conditions but it is a delicate structure. Providing protection for the eye is very important in many workplaces. In some environments this includes protection from projectile particles or other sources of damage such as laser irradiation. Of great additional benefit would be technologies to boost the eye’s performance in low-lighting conditions.

This inter-disciplinary project seeks to develop contact-lens based technologies for eye protection and increased low-light vision. A lens structure that will effectively manage IR radiation will be developed. The material has to be transparent at optical wavelengths, i.e. minimal dispersion, then show strong dispersion over IR wavelengths (over their broad band width; 700nm to 1 mm). Work will use computational modelling to identify key wavelengths, and define metamaterial structures to give the required response. Programmed self-assembly using biomolecules (DNA & polypeptides) is proposed to deliver high quality structures over the large scales needed.

This iCASE Studentship is jointly sponsored by EPSRC and Dstl and features an enhanced support package. The candidate will benefit from a placement period working in Dstl laboratories and interacting with their researchers. Project supervision within Edinburgh is by Prof. Alistair Elfick (Synthetic Biological Engineering) and Dr Katherine Dunn (DNA nanotechnology) with Prof. Rebecca Seviour at Huddersfield bringing experience in metamaterials.