Abstract

Wavefront shaping is a technique to study and control light transport inside scattering media. Wavefront shaping is considered to be applicable to any complex material, yet in most previous studies, the only sample geometries that are studied are slabs or wave-guides. In this paper, we study how macroscopic changes in the sample shape affect light scattering using the wavefront shaping technique. Using a flexible scattering material, we optimize the intensity of light in a focusing spot using wavefront shaping and record the optimized pattern, comparing the enhancement for different curvatures and beam radii. We validate our hypothesis that wavefront shaping has a similar enhancement regardless of the free-form shape of the sample and thus offers relevant potential for industrial applications. We propose a new figure of merit to evaluate the performance of wavefront shaping for different shapes. Surprisingly, based on this figure of merit, we observe that for this particular sample, wavefront shaping has a slightly better performance for a free-form shape than for a slab shape.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.505974

Authors

A. Rates, A. Lagendijk, A. J. L. Adam, W. L. IJzerman, and W. L. Vos

Year of publication

2023

Date published

12/2023

Journal

Opt. Express

Volume

31

Pages

43351-43361

DOI number

10.1364/OE.505974

Keywords

freeform optics, multiple light scattering, Wavefront shaping