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Controlling waves in space and time for imaging and focusing in complex media

Nature Photonics volume 6, pages 283–292 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

In complex media such as white paint and biological tissue, light encounters nanoscale refractive-index inhomogeneities that cause multiple scattering. Such scattering is usually seen as an impediment to focusing and imaging. However, scientists have recently used strongly scattering materials to focus, shape and compress waves by controlling the many degrees of freedom in the incident waves. This was first demonstrated in the acoustic and microwave domains using time reversal, and is now being performed in the optical realm using spatial light modulators to address the many thousands of spatial degrees of freedom of light. This approach is being used to investigate phenomena such as optical super-resolution and the time reversal of light, thus opening many new avenues for imaging and focusing in turbid media.

Scattering of light is usually seen as an impediment to focusing and imaging. This article reviews the recent progress of how strongly scattering media can be used to focus, shape and compress waves by controlling the many degrees of freedom in the incident waves.

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Figure 1: Speckle correlations in space and frequency.
Figure 2: Using spatial degrees of freedom to focus light through complex media.
Figure 3: Taking advantage of the temporal degrees of freedom in complex media.
Figure 4: Controlling waves in complex media for sub-diffraction and subwavelength focusing and imaging.
Figure 5: Recent applications of wavefront control in complex media.

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Acknowledgements

A.P.M. acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (grant number 279248). The authors thank E. G. van Putten for providing Fig. 4c.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Complex Photonic Systems (COPS), University of Twente, PO Box 217, Enschede, 7500 AE, The Netherlands

    Allard P. Mosk & Ad Lagendijk

  2. FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Science Park 104, Amsterdam, 1098 XG, The Netherlands

    Ad Lagendijk

  3. Institut Langevin, ESPCI ParisTech and CNRS, UMR 7587, 10 Rue Vauquelin, Paris, 75005, France

    Geoffroy Lerosey & Mathias Fink

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Correspondence to Allard P. Mosk.

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Mosk, A., Lagendijk, A., Lerosey, G. et al. Controlling waves in space and time for imaging and focusing in complex media. Nature Photon 6, 283–292 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.88

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