Acousto-optic laser optical feedback imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces AO-LOFI, a highly sensitive imaging method that combines laser and ultrasonic waves to filter parasitic feedback, enhancing imaging through scattering media.

Contribution

The work presents a novel acousto-optic tagging approach to suppress parasitic feedback in LOFI, achieving ultimate sensitivity in imaging.

Findings

Successful suppression of parasitic feedback in AO-LOFI

Enhanced imaging sensitivity approaching theoretical limits

Demonstration of imaging through scattering media

Abstract

We present a photon noise and diffraction limited imaging method combining the imaging laser and ultrasonic waves. The laser optical feedback imaging (LOFI) technique is an ultrasensitive imaging method for imaging objects through or embedded within a scattering medium. However, LOFI performances are dramatically limited by parasitic optical feedback occurring in the experimental setup. In this work, we have tagged the ballistic photons by an acousto-optic effect in order to filter the parasitic feedback effect and to reach the theoretical and ultimate sensitivity of the LOFI technique. We present the principle and the experimental setup of the acousto-optic laser optical feedback imaging (AO-LOFI) technique, and we demonstrate the suppression of the parasitic feedback.