High-fidelity near-diffraction-limited projection through scattering with reference-less transmission matrix

TL;DR

This paper introduces a reference-less computational method to characterize scattering media for high-quality near-diffraction-limited image projection, improving resolution and simplifying setup compared to traditional reference-based techniques.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel approach to retrieve the transmission matrix from intensity-only measurements, enabling high-fidelity projection without a reference beam.

Findings

Achieves near-diffraction-limited resolution in projections

Eliminates the need for a reference beam in transmission matrix measurement

Demonstrates improved image quality through multimode fiber

Abstract

Image projection through scattering media has applications ranging from light delivery through multimode fiber to near-eye displays. Conventional methods utilize the transmission matrix (TM) measured by interfering with a reference beam. However, it is noise-sensitive, often resulting in artifacts that degrade the projection quality. Here we propose to characterize the scattering by computationally retrieving TM from intensity-only measurements and solve the projection problem formulated with the retrieved TM by optimization. We experimentally validate the proposed method by projecting through a multimode fiber. Compared to the conventional methods, it projects improved-quality images with resolution near to the diffraction limit, and simplifies the experimental setup by eliminating the reference. It paves the way for applications of high-quality near-diffraction-limited projection through scattering.