Near-field transmission matrix microscopy for mapping high-order eigenmodes of subwavelength nanostructures

Wavefront shaping improves the transparency of the scattering media: a review

Significance

Wavefront shaping (WFS) can compensate for distortions by optimizing the wavefront of the input light or reversing the transmission matrix of the media. It is a promising field of research. A thorough understanding of principles and developments of WFS is important for optical research.

Aim

To provide insight into WFS for researchers who deal with scattering in biomedicine, imaging, and optical communication, our study summarizes the basic principles and methods of WFS and reviews recent progress.

Approach

The basic principles, methods of WFS, and the latest applications of WFS in focusing, imaging, and multimode fiber (MMF) endoscopy are described. The practical challenges and prospects of future development are also discussed.

Results

Data-driven learning-based methods are opening up new possibilities for WFS. High-resolution imaging through MMFs can support small-diameter endoscopy in the future.

Conclusion

The rapid development of WFS over the past decade has shown that the best solution is not to avoid scattering but to find ways to correct it or even use it. WFS with faster speed, more optical modes, and more modulation degrees of freedom will continue to drive exciting developments in various fields.

Wavefront shaping: A versatile tool to conquer multiple scattering in multidisciplinary fields

Optical techniques offer a wide variety of applications as light-matter interactions provide extremely sensitive mechanisms to probe or treat target media. Most of these implementations rely on the usage of ballistic or quasi-ballistic photons to achieve high spatial resolution. However, the inherent scattering nature of light in biological tissues or tissue-like scattering media constitutes a critical obstacle that has restricted the penetration depth of non-scattered photons and hence limited the implementation of most optical techniques for wider applications. In addition, the components of an optical system are usually designed and manufactured for a fixed function or performance. Recent advances in wavefront shaping have demonstrated that scattering- or component-induced phase distortions can be compensated by optimizing the wavefront of the input light pattern through iteration or by conjugating the transmission matrix of the scattering medium. This offers unprecedented opportunities in many applications to achieve controllable optical delivery or detection at depths or dynamically configurable functionalities by using scattering media to substitute conventional optical components. In this article, the recent progress of wavefront shaping in multidisciplinary fields is reviewed, from optical focusing and imaging with scattering media, functionalized devices, modulation of mode coupling, and nonlinearity in multimode fiber to multimode fiber-based applications. Apart from insights into the underlying principles and recent advances in wavefront shaping implementations, practical limitations and roadmap for future development are discussed in depth. Looking back and looking forward, it is believed that wavefront shaping holds a bright future that will open new avenues for noninvasive or minimally invasive optical interactions and arbitrary control inside deep tissues. The high degree of freedom with multiple scattering will also provide unprecedented opportunities to develop novel optical devices based on a single scattering medium (generic or customized) that can outperform traditional optical components.

Collection of propagating electromagnetic fields by uncoated probe

Understanding light-matter interaction at the nanoscale by observation of fine details of electromagnetic fields is achieved by bringing nanoscale probes into the nearfield of light sources, capturing information that is lost in the far field. Although metal coated probes are often used for nearfield microscopy, they strongly perturb the electromagnetic fields under study. Here, through experiment and simulation, we detail light collection by uncoated fiber probes, which minimize such perturbation. Second-harmonic light from intensely-irradiated sub-wavelength sub-surface features was imaged to avoid otherwise dominating fundamental light background, yielding clear nearfield details through a 50 nm aperture uncoated probe with ∼23 nm optical resolution. Simulations show how a metallic coating distorts optical nearfields and limits optical coupling into the probe in comparison to an uncoated probe.

Deeply Subwavelength Localization with Reverberation-Coded Aperture

Accessing subwavelength information about a scene from the far-field without invasive near-field manipulations is a fundamental challenge in wave engineering. Yet it is well understood that the dwell time of waves in complex media sets the scale for the waves' sensitivity to perturbations. Modern coded-aperture imagers leverage the degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) offered by complex media as natural multiplexor but do not recognize and reap the fundamental difference between placing the object of interest outside or within the complex medium. Here, we show that the precision of localizing a subwavelength object can be improved by several orders of magnitude simply by enclosing it in its far field with a reverberant passive chaotic cavity. We identify deep learning as a suitable noise-robust tool to extract subwavelength localization information encoded in multiplexed measurements, achieving resolutions well beyond those available in the training data. We demonstrate our finding in the microwave domain: harnessing the configurational d.o.f. of a simple programmable metasurface, we localize a subwavelength object along a curved trajectory inside a chaotic cavity with a resolution of λ/76 using intensity-only single-frequency single-pixel measurements. Our results may have important applications in photoacoustic imaging as well as human-machine interaction based on reverberating elastic waves, sound, or microwaves.

Adaptive tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy

Tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy, such as tip-enhanced photoluminescence (TEPL) and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), generally suffers from inconsistent signal enhancement and difficulty in polarization-resolved measurement. To address this problem, we present adaptive tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy optimizing the nano-optical vector-field at the tip apex. Specifically, we demonstrate dynamic wavefront shaping of the excitation field to effectively couple light to the tip and adaptively control for enhanced sensitivity and polarization-controlled TEPL and TERS. Employing a sequence feedback algorithm, we achieve ~4.4 × 10⁴-fold TEPL enhancement of a WSe₂ monolayer which is >2× larger than the normal TEPL intensity without wavefront shaping. In addition, with dynamical near-field polarization control in TERS, we demonstrate the investigation of conformational heterogeneity of brilliant cresyl blue molecules and the controllable observation of IR-active modes due to a large gradient field effect. Adaptive tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy thus provides for a systematic approach towards computational nanoscopy making optical nano-imaging more robust and widely deployable.

Tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy suffers from inconsistent signal and difficulty in polarization-resolved measurement. Here, the authors present adaptive tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy, which enables the additional signal enhancement and near-field polarization control via dynamic wavefront shaping.