Fresnel zone plate

Imagine you have a big pizza with lots of toppings on it. When you cut a slice of pizza, you can only see the toppings that are on that slice. But if you cut the pizza into very thin slices, you can see more toppings all the way through the pizza.

A fresnel zone plate is kind of like a special pizza slicer. Instead of cutting a pizza, it splits up light waves (like colors or laser beams) into very thin slices, so you can see more details in the wave.

The slices are called "zones," and they get smaller and smaller as you move away from the center of the plate. If you put the fresnel zone plate in front of a light source, it can help focus or scatter the light in a specific way, depending on how it's made.

Scientists and engineers use fresnel zone plates to study and manipulate light waves for things like microscopy, communication technology, and even solar energy devices.