Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Wavefront shaping in complex media with a 350 kHz modulator via a 1D-to-2D transform

Nature Photonics volume 13, pages 788–793 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Controlling the propagation and interaction of light in complex media has sparked major interest in the past few years. Unfortunately, spatial light modulation devices suffer from limited speed, which precludes real-time applications such as imaging in live tissue. To address this critical problem, we introduce a phase-control technique to characterize complex media based on the use of fast one-dimensional (1D) spatial light modulators and a 1D-to-2D transformation performed by the same medium being analysed. We implement the concept using a microelectromechanical grating light valve with 1,088 degrees of freedom, modulated at 350 kHz, enabling unprecedented high-speed wavefront measurements. We continuously measure the transmission matrix, calculate the optimal wavefront and project a focus through various dynamic scattering samples in real time, all within 2.4 ms per cycle. These results improve the previously achieved wavefront shaping modulation speed by more than an order of magnitude and open new opportunities for optical processing using 1D-to-2D transformations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Principle of 1D-to-2D transformation for wavefront shaping with a 1D SLM.
Fig. 2: Far-field speckle shape for different scatterer widths.
Fig. 3: Experimental set-up.
Fig. 4: System performance in terms of focus enhancement versus time.
Fig. 5: Focusing at the output of a MMF.
Fig. 6: Comparison of the iterative algorithm and the TM method.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Vellekoop, I. M. & Mosk, A. P. Focusing coherent light through opaque strongly scattering media.Opt. Lett. 32, 2309–2311 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mosk, A. P., Lagendijk, A., Lerosey, G. & Fink, M. Controlling waves in space and time for imaging and focusing in complex media. Nat. Photon. 6, 283–292 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Goodman, J. W. Some fundamental properties of speckle. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 66, 1145–1150 (1976).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Vellekoop, I. M., Lagendijk, A. & Mosk, A. P. Exploiting disorder for perfect focusing. Nat. Photon. 4, 320–322 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Katz, O., Small, E. & Silberberg, Y. Looking around corners and through thin turbid layers in real time with scattered incoherent light. Nat. Photon. 6, 549–553 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Vellekoop, I. M. Feedback-based wavefront shaping. Opt. Express 23, 12189 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Popoff, S., Lerosey, G., Fink, M., Boccara, A. C. & Gigan, S. Image transmission through an opaque material. Nat. Commun. 1, 81 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Blochet, B., Bourdieu, L. & Gigan, S. Focusing light through dynamical samples using fast continuous wavefront optimization. Opt. Lett. 42, 4994–4997 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Conkey, D. B., Caravaca-Aguirre, A. M. & Piestun, R. High-speed scattering medium characterization with application to focusing light through turbid media. Opt. Express 20, 1733–1740 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Caravaca-Aguirre, A. M., Niv, E., Conkey, D. B. & Piestun, R. Real-time resilient focusing through a bending multimode fiber. Opt. Express 21, 12881–12887 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Wang, D. et al. Focusing through dynamic tissue with millisecond digital optical phase conjugation. Optica 2, 728–735 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Liu, Y., Ma, C., Shen, Y., Shi, J. & Wang, L. V. Focusing light inside dynamic scattering media with millisecond digital optical phase conjugation. Optica 4, 280–288 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Popoff, S. M., Lerosey, G., Fink, M., Boccara, A. C. & Gigan, S. Controlling light through optical disordered media: transmission matrix approach. New J. Phys. 13, 123021 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Piestun, R. & Miller, D. A. B. Electromagnetic degrees of freedom of an optical system. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17, 892–902 (2000).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  15. Mccabe, D. J. et al. Spatio-temporal focusing of an ultrafast pulse through a multiply scattering medium. Nat. Commun. 2, 447 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Katz, O., Small, E., Bromberg, Y. & Silberberg, Y. Focusing and compression of ultrashort pulses through scattering media. Nat. Photon. 5, 372–377 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Freund, I., Rosenbluh, M. & Feng, S. Memory effects in propagation of optical waves through disordered media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2328–2331 (1988).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Judkewitz, B., Horstmeyer, R., Vellekoop, I. M., Papadopoulos, I. N. & Yang, C. Translation correlations in anisotropically scattering media. Nat. Phys. 11, 684–689 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Popoff, S. M. et al. Measuring the transmission matrix in optics: an approach to the study and control of light propagation in disordered media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 100601 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Freischlad, K. & Koliopoulos, C. L. Fourier description of digital phase-measuring interferometry. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 7, 542–551 (1990).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Ohayon, S., Aguirre, A. M. C., Piestun, R. & DiCarlo, J. J. Minimally invasive multimode optical fiber microendoscope for deep brain fluorescence imaging. Biomed. Opt. Express 9, 1492–1509 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Tzang, O., Caravaca-Aguirre, A. M., Wagner, K. & Piestun, R. Adaptive wavefront shaping for controlling nonlinear multimode interactions in optical fibres. Nat. Photon. 12, 368–374 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Akbulut, D., Huisman, T. J., Putten, E. G. Van., Vos, W. L. & Mosk, A. P. Focusing light through random photonic media by binary amplitude modulation.Opt.Express 19, 4017–4029 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Conkey, D. B., Brown, A. N., Caravaca-Aguirre, A. M. & Piestun, R. Genetic algorithm optimization for focusing through turbid media in noisy environments.Opt. Express 20, 4840–4849 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Yılmaz, H., Vos, W. L. & Mosk, A. P. Optimal control of light propagation through multiple-scattering media in the presence of noise. Biomed. Opt. Express 4, 1759–1768 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank L. Eng, A. Payne and Y. Hashimoto from Silicon Light Machines as well as S. Gigan for useful discussions. This work was supported by NSF awards nos. 1548924 and 1611513 and NIH grant no. REY026436A.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Omer Tzang, Eyal Niv.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA

    Omer Tzang, Eyal Niv, Sakshi Singh, Simon Labouesse & Rafael Piestun

  2. Silicon Light Machines, Sunnyvale, CA, USA

    Greg Myatt

Authors
  1. Omer Tzang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eyal Niv
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sakshi Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Simon Labouesse
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Greg Myatt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Rafael Piestun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

R.P. conceived the project. O.T. and E.N. initiated and designed the project. O.T. and S.S. built the set-up. E.N. designed the software. G.M. designed the GLV hardware modifications. O.T. and S.S. performed the experimental work. S.L., S.S. and O.T. performed the simulations. O.T., S.L., S.S. and R.P. discussed the experiments and data. O.T. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors. O.T. and R.P. supervised the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omer Tzang.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains more information about the work and Supplementary Figs. 1–12.

Supplementary Video 1

Continuous focusing while the scatterer is shifted laterally.

Supplementary Video 2

Continuous focusing through dynamic samples.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tzang, O., Niv, E., Singh, S. et al. Wavefront shaping in complex media with a 350 kHz modulator via a 1D-to-2D transform. Nat. Photonics 13, 788–793 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0503-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0503-6

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing