PhD Thesis: "Ad-hoc control of scattering for adaptive opaque lenses"

Abstract

Microscopy and optical imaging are drastically limited by the inhomogeneities encountered by the light while propagating from the object of interest to the detection system. In this context, adaptive optics and wavefront manipulation are able to improve the contrast (visibility) of systems embedded in turbid and noisy environments. By wavefront shaping, the fluence of the light propagating through complex systems can be controlled, thus, confining the light in a defined microscopic region in the volume or at the back of scattering structures. We can imagine to counterintuitively exploit the optical barriers, turning them into scattering lenses. In this Thesis we consider these new generation of lenses: we demonstrate them to be configurable optical devices able to produce tailored light structures, hence resulting extremely advantageous if integrated in optical systems.