PhD Thesis: "Ad-hoc control of scattering for adaptive opaque lenses"

TL;DR

This thesis explores adaptive wavefront shaping techniques to control light propagation through scattering media, creating configurable optical lenses that enhance imaging in turbid environments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to controlling scattering for adaptive opaque lenses, enabling tailored light structures for improved optical system performance.

Findings

Scattering can be exploited to create configurable optical lenses.

Wavefront shaping improves imaging contrast in turbid media.

Optical barriers can be turned into functional lenses.

Abstract

Microscopy and optical imaging are drastically limited by the inhomogeneities encountered by the light while propagating from the object of interest to the detection system. In this context, adaptive optics and wavefront manipulation are able to improve the contrast (visibility) of systems embedded in turbid and noisy environments. By wavefront shaping, the fluence of the light propagating through complex systems can be controlled, thus, confining the light in a defined microscopic region in the volume or at the back of scattering structures. We can imagine to counterintuitively exploit the optical barriers, turning them into scattering lenses. In this Thesis we consider these new generation of lenses: we demonstrate them to be configurable optical devices able to produce tailored light structures, hence resulting extremely advantageous if integrated in optical systems.