OPTOMECHANICS WITH LEGO

The basic elements of a fairly complete optomechanical kit based on th e use of LEGO are presented. Taking advantage of the great variety of standard LEGO elements, and adding a few custom components made of Ple xiglas, we show how most of the mechanical parts of an optical setup c an be built with little effort and at an extremely reduced cost. Sever al systems and experiments are presented, mainly in the fields of opti cal filtering and interferometry, to show that the proposed mounts are excellent for didactic purposes and often perfectly suitable even in applied research. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.