Spatiotemporal control of light

We control spatiotemporal profiles of light fields using adaptive diffractive optical elements such as spatial light modulators. Such a high-degree control of the light field in space and time enables us to access high-dimensional information about complex object structures such as opaque biological tissue.

The image is taken from the cover of the Ph.D. thesis entitled ”Advanced Optical Imaging with Scattering Lenses” by Hasan Yılmaz.

Mesoscopic physics with light in complex media

We can shape the wavefront of a coherent laser beam so that light propagates through a layer of white paint without diffusing laterally. Such special light shapes have applications in biomedical imaging and controlling light-matter interactions in complex scattering environments.

The image is taken from the press release entitled “New shapes of laser beam ‘sneak’ through opaque media,” Yale News, March 2019.

Random light pattern engineering

We design coherent random light patterns by shaping not only the spatial profiles of light fields but also their statistical properties for specific applications in high-content computational imaging and microspectroscopy.

The image is taken from the cover of Optica 5, Issue 5, 20 May 2018
Credit: Nicholas Bender