Wavelength-multiplexed multi-mode EUV reflection ptychography based on automatic differentiation.

Ptychographic extreme ultraviolet (EUV) diffractive imaging has emerged as a promising candidate for the next generationmetrology solutions in the semiconductor industry, as it can image wafer samples in reflection geometry at the nanoscale. This technique has surged attention recently, owing to the significant progress in high-harmonic generation (HHG) EUV sources and advancements in both hardware and software for computation. In this study, a novel algorithm is introduced and tested, which enables wavelength-multiplexed reconstruction that enhances the measurement throughput and introduces data diversity, allowing the accurate characterisation of sample structures.

Origami nanogap electrodes for reversible nanoparticle trapping.

We present a facile desktop fabrication method for origami-based nanogap indium tin oxide (ITO) electrokinetic particle traps, providing a simplified approach compared to traditional lithographic techniques and effective trapping of nanoparticles. Our approach involves bending ITO thin films on optically transparent polyethylene terephthalate (PET), creating an array of parallel nanogaps. By strategically introducing weak points through cut-sharp edges, we successfully controlled the spread of nanocracks.

Noise-robust latent vector reconstruction in ptychography using deep generative models.

Computational imaging is increasingly vital for a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from biological to material sciences. This includes applications where the object is known and sufficiently sparse, allowing it to be described with a reduced number of parameters. When no explicit parameterization is available, a deep generative model can be trained to represent an object in a low-dimensional latent space.

Maximum-likelihood estimation in ptychography in the presence of Poisson-Gaussian noise statistics: publisher's note.

This publisher's note contains a correction to Opt. Lett.48, 6027 (2023)10.

Maximum-likelihood estimation in ptychography in the presence of Poisson-Gaussian noise statistics.

Optical measurements often exhibit mixed Poisson-Gaussian noise statistics, which hampers the image quality, particularly under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Computational imaging falls short in such situations when solely Poissonian noise statistics are assumed. In response to this challenge, we define a loss function that explicitly incorporates this mixed noise nature.

Optimal Control of Coherent Light Scattering for Binary Decision Problems.

Because of quantum noise fluctuations, the rate of error achievable in decision problems involving several possible configurations of a scattering system is subject to a fundamental limit known as the Helstrom bound. Here, we present a general framework to calculate and minimize this bound using coherent probe fields with tailored spatial distributions. As an example, we experimentally study a target located in between two disordered scattering media.

Optimizing illumination for precise multi-parameter estimations in coherent diffractive imaging.

Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) is widely used to characterize structured samples from measurements of diffracting intensity patterns. We introduce a numerical framework to quantify the precision that can be achieved when estimating any given set of parameters characterizing the sample from measured data. The approach, based on the calculation of the Fisher information matrix, provides a clear benchmark to assess the performance of CDI methods.

Resampling the transmission matrix in an aberration-corrected Bessel mode basis.

The study of the optical transmission matrix (TM) of a sample reveals important statistics of light transport through it. The accuracy of the statistics depends strongly on the orthogonality and completeness of the basis in which the TM is measured. While conventional experimental methods suffer from sampling effects and optical aberrations, we use a basis of Bessel modes of the first kind to faithfully recover the singular values, eigenvalues and eigenmodes of light propagation through a finite thickness of air.

Optical method for micrometer-scale tracerless visualization of ultrafast laser induced gas flow at a water/air interface.

We study femtosecond-laser-induced flows of air at a water/air interface, at micrometer length scales. To visualize the flow velocity field, we simultaneously induce two flow fronts using two adjacent laser pump spots. Where the flows meet, a stationary shockwave is produced, the length of which is a measure of the local flow velocity at a given radial position.

Femtosecond laser-ablation of gel and water.

We study the expansion dynamics of super-heated material during ultra-fast laser ablation of water and gel, using transient-reflectivity microscopy. We find that the expansion dynamics of water and gel, as observed during the first few nanoseconds, are extremely similar over a large range of ablation energies. We measure the crater topography of the gel after irradiation with a single laser shot, using optical interferometric microscopy, and estimate the mass that is ejected during the ablation.

Influence of the Local Scattering Environment on the Localization Precision of Single Particles.

We study the fundamental limit on the localization precision for a subwavelength scatterer embedded in a strongly scattering environment, using the external degrees of freedom provided by wavefront shaping. For a weakly scattering target, the localization precision improves with the value of the local density of states at the target position. For a strongly scattering target, the localization precision depends on the dressed polarizability that includes the backaction of the environment.

Imaging through highly scattering environments using ballistic and quasi-ballistic light in a common-path Sagnac interferometer.

The survival of time-reversal symmetry in the presence of strong multiple scattering lies at the heart of some of the most robust interference effects of light in complex media. Here, the use of time-reversed light paths for imaging in highly scattering environments is investigated. A common-path Sagnac interferometer is constructed that is able to detect objects behind a layer of strongly scattering material at up to 14 mean free paths of total attenuation length.

Adaptive Control of Necklace States in a Photonic Crystal Waveguide.

Resonant cavities with high quality factor and small mode volume provide crucial enhancement of light-matter interactions in nanophotonic devices that transport and process classical and quantum information. The production of functional circuits containing many such cavities remains a major challenge, as inevitable imperfections in the fabrication detune the cavities, which strongly affects functionality such as transmission. In photonic crystal waveguides, intrinsic disorder gives rise to high- localized resonances through Anderson localization; however their location and resonance frequencies are completely random, which hampers functionality.

Imaging of objects through a thin scattering layer using a spectrally and spatially separated reference.

Incoherently illuminated or luminescent objects give rise to a low-contrast speckle-like pattern when observed through a thin diffusive medium, as such a medium effectively convolves their shape with a speckle-like point spread function (PSF). This point spread function can be extracted in the presence of a reference object of known shape. Here it is shown that reference objects that are both spatially and spectrally separated from the object of interest can be used to obtain an approximation of the point spread function.

Finite-size Scaling of the Density of States in Photonic Band Gap Crystals.

The famous vanishing of the density of states (DOS) in a band gap, be it photonic or electronic, pertains to the infinite-crystal limit. In contrast, all experiments and device applications refer to finite crystals, which raises the question: Upon increasing the linear size L of a crystal, how fast does the DOS approach the infinite-crystal limit? We present a theory for finite crystals that includes Bloch-mode broadening due to the presence of crystal boundaries. Our results demonstrate that the DOS for frequencies inside a band gap has a 1/L scale dependence for crystals in one, two and three dimensions.

Transmitting more than 10 bit with a single photon.

Encoding information in the position of single photons has no known limits, given infinite resources. Using a heralded single-photon source and a spatial light modulator (SLM), we steer single photons to specific positions in a virtual grid on a large-area spatially resolving photon-counting detector (ICCD). We experimentally demonstrate selective addressing any location (symbol) in a 9072 size grid (alphabet) to achieve 10.

Measurement of the linear thermo-optical coefficient of GaInP using photonic crystal nanocavities.

GaInP is a promising candidate for thermally tunable nanophotonic devices due to its low thermal conductivity. In this work we study its thermo-optical response. We obtain the linear thermo-optical coefficient dn/dT=2.

Tuning out disorder-induced localization in nanophotonic cavity arrays.

Weakly coupled high-Q nanophotonic cavities are building blocks of slow-light waveguides and other nanophotonic devices. Their functionality critically depends on tuning as resonance frequencies should stay within the bandwidth of the device. Unavoidable disorder leads to random frequency shifts which cause localization of the light in single cavities.

Authenticated communication from quantum readout of PUFs.

Quantum readout of physical unclonable functions (PUFs) is a recently introduced method for remote authentication of objects. We present an extension of the protocol to enable the authentication of : A verifier can check if received classical data were sent by the PUF holder. We call this modification QR-d or, in the case of the optical-PUF implementation, QSA-d.

Frequency width of open channels in multiple scattering media.

We report optical measurements of the spectral width of open transmission channels in a three-dimensional diffusive medium. The light transmission through a sample is enhanced by efficiently coupling to open transmission channels using repeated digital optical phase conjugation. The spectral properties are investigated by enhancing the transmission, fixing the incident wavefront and scanning the wavelength of the laser.

Nanocapillary electrokinetic tracking for monitoring charge fluctuations on a single nanoparticle.

We introduce nanoCapillary Electrokinetic Tracking (nanoCET), an optofluidic platform for continuously measuring the electrophoretic mobility of a single colloidal nanoparticle or macromolecule in vitro with millisecond time resolution and high charge sensitivity. This platform is based on using a nanocapillary optical fiber in which liquids may flow inside a channel embedded inside the light-guiding core and nanoparticles are tracked using elastic light scattering. Using this platform we have experimentally measured the electrophoretic mobility of 60 nm gold nanoparticles in an aqueous environment.

Measurement of the profiles of disorder-induced localized resonances in photonic crystal waveguides by local tuning.

Near the band edge of photonic crystal waveguides, localized modes appear due to disorder. We demonstrate a new method to elucidate spatial profile of the localized modes in such systems using precise local tuning. Using deconvolution with the known thermal profile, the spatial profile of a localized mode with quality factor (Q) > 10 is successfully reconstructed with a resolution of 2.

Mapping the energy density of shaped waves in scattering media onto a complete set of diffusion modes.

We study the energy density of shaped waves inside a quasi-1D disordered waveguide. We find that the spatial energy density of optimally shaped waves, when expanded in the complete set of eigenfunctions of the diffusion equation, is well described by considering only a few of the lowest eigenfunctions. Taking into account only the fundamental eigenfunction, the total internal energy inside the sample is underestimated by only 2%.

High-resolution wavefront shaping with a photonic crystal fiber for multimode fiber imaging.

We demonstrate that a high-numerical-aperture photonic crystal fiber allows lensless focusing at an unparalleled resolution by complex wavefront shaping. This paves the way toward high-resolution imaging exceeding the capabilities of imaging with multi-core single-mode optical fibers. We analyze the beam waist and power in the focal spot on the fiber output using different types of fibers and different wavefront shaping approaches.

Dispersion of coupled mode-gap cavities.

The dispersion of a coupled resonator optical waveguide made of photonic crystal mode-gap cavities is pronouncedly asymmetric. This asymmetry cannot be explained by the standard tight binding model. We show that the fundamental cause of the asymmetric dispersion is the inherent dispersive cavity mode profile; i.