Advancing Fourier: space-time concepts in ultrafast optics, imaging and photonic neural networks

TL;DR

This paper reviews how Fourier transform concepts have driven significant advances across various areas of optics and photonics, including beam shaping, ultrafast measurements, ghost imaging, and photonic neural networks.

Contribution

It highlights recent innovative applications of Fourier optics in diverse fields, emphasizing the expansion of Fourier-based techniques into new areas of research and technology.

Findings

Enhanced spatial shaping of laser beams in amplitude and phase

Development of real-time ultrafast measurement techniques

Innovative ghost imaging and photonic neural network methods

Abstract

The concepts of Fourier optics were established in France in the 1940s by Pierre-Michel Duffieux, and laid the foundations of an extensive series of activities in the French research community that have touched on nearly every aspect of contemporary optics and photonics. In this paper, we review a selection of results where applications of the Fourier transform and transfer functions in optics have been applied to yield significant advances in unexpected areas of optics, including the spatial shaping of complex laser beams in amplitude and in phase, real-time ultrafast measurements, novel ghost imaging techniques, and the development of parallel processing methodologies for photonic artificial intelligence.