So far my research has been connected with everything that deals with varying indexes of refraction. This is a very wide topic that can be connected to many different things. At any instance where there is a change in temperature, density, or salinity there will be a refraction of the light that passes through the boundary. Taking this factor there are many applications to use in technology. It can be easily demonstrated in simple experi ments with simply a fish tank, sugar, water and a laser pointer. See my WISE work.
All of my research deals with light. This is the whole field of science that is known as optics. In the field of optics light is studied beginning with visible light but not all of light is visible. The light tha we can see is only a small art of the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum includes all waves which are visible light, microwaves, radio waves (AM, FM, SW) X-Rays and Gamma Rays. All of these waves whether they can be visibly seen or not can be manipulated through reflection and refraction.
The original reason why I became interested in index of refraction was because I was fascinated by the science behind mirages. I had already seen demonstrations of virtual images but that is usually through the use of mirrors. There are many ways to displace images with mirrors. They ahve all been witnessed in the movies and by magician performances. Well I did have a physics teacher in high school who frankly told us that the subject was simply black magic. So what are these tricks that our eyes play on us when we are walking through a desert or perhaps, looking through the air above a barbeque. As a child, I used to ponder that perhaps I was crazy to be witnessing air seemingly dancing up and down. Learning that the causes of this are air in any given area may not have a constant index of refraction and as long as you are lookig at it you will see a light distortion.
Mirages are generated by two layers of air that are at different temperatues. Cold air is more dense than hot air. So during the hotter seasons, it is more likely that a mirage will occur. The ground heats up enough to affect the density of the air above it. As the light passes through the air it is now passing through different densities, causing bends in the rays of light. This happens especially when the light hits the boundary at an extreme angle. The further away the distance, the more extreme the angle that the light will hit making the mirage seem more realistic.
An example of this is the oasis mirage which was briefly mentioned before. This occrs when the air just above the ground gets hot enough to heat the air. At the boundary of the hot and normal air there will be a refraction. You can no longer see the floorr and light will be reflected from the blue sky. It will make the ground look like water.
A mirage can also result when there is a temperature boundary between layers of air in the sky. If the boundary is not flat, but curved, the mirage will not only display a mirror image but act as a lens, and magnify the distant image.
Some types of mirages are referred to as Fata Morgana. Historically, out in the sea there were "phantom ships" that would appear and sometimes disappear in the sky. Scientific reasoning behind it explains that it was probably caused from the sea being much cooler than the atmosphere. It will start to cool some of the lower layers of the atmosphere and this will create a boundary layer. The more boundaries of air, the image can be more complex because the light is refracted and displaced more times.