Mirror Symmetry in Three-Dimensional Multiple-Scattering Media.

We investigate the effect of a mirror-symmetry plane in multiple-scattering media under plane-wave illumination along the symmetry plane. Designed and fabricated samples' optical transport properties are compared quantitatively with three-dimensional modeling. Strong polarization-dependent deviations of the bulk speckle-averaged intensity distribution at the symmetry plane are observed, showing either up to a factor 2 enhancement or complete suppression of the ensemble-averaged intensities.

Focus quality in raster-scan imaging via a multimode fiber.

A multimode fiber (MMF) is a minimally invasive imaging probe. The most popular approach of MMF-based microscopy is raster-scan imaging, where the sample is illuminated by foci optimized on the fiber output facet by wavefront shaping (WFS). Imaging quality can be quantified by characteristic parameters of the optimized spots.

Bottom-Up Assembled Photonic Crystals for Structure-Enabled Label-Free Sensing.

Photonic crystals (PhCs) display photonic stop bands (PSBs) and at the edges of these PSBs transport light with reduced velocity, enabling the PhCs to confine and manipulate incident light with enhanced light-matter interaction. Intense research has been devoted to leveraging the optical properties of PhCs for the development of optical sensors for bioassays, diagnosis, and environmental monitoring. These applications have furthermore benefited from the inherently large surface area of PhCs, giving rise to high analyte adsorption and the wide range of options for structural variations of the PhCs leading to enhanced light-matter interaction.

Comparison of round- and square-core fibers for sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy.

Multimode fibers (MMFs) show great promise as miniature probes for sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy applications. Different parameters of the fibers, such as numerical aperture, refractive index profile and length, have been already optimized for better performance. Here we investigate the role of the core shape, in particular for wavefront shaping applications where a focus is formed at the output of the MMF.

Spatiotemporal focusing through a multimode fiber via time-domain wavefront shaping.

We shape fs optical pulses and deliver them in a single spatial mode to the input of a multimode fiber. The pulse is shaped in time such that at the output of the multimode fiber an ultrashort pulse appears at a predefined focus. Our result shows how to raster scan an ultrashort pulse at the output of a stiff piece of square-core step-index multimode fiber and in this way show the potential for making a nonlinear fluorescent image of the scene behind the fiber, while the connection to the multimode fiber can be established via a thin and flexible single-mode fiber.

Plasmonic Nanocrystal Arrays on Photonic Crystals with Tailored Optical Resonances.

Hierarchical plasmonic-photonic microspheres (PPMs) with high controllability in their structures and optical properties have been explored toward surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The PPMs consist of gold nanocrystal (AuNC) arrays (3rd-tier) anchored on a hexagonal nanopattern (2nd-tier) assembled from silica nanoparticles (SiONPs) where the uniform microsphere backbone is termed the 1st-tier. The PPMs sustain both photonic stop band (PSB) properties, resulting from periodic SiONP arrangements of the 2nd-tier, and a surface plasmon resonance (SPR), resulting from AuNC arrays of the 3rd-tier.

Programming multi-level quantum gates in disordered computing reservoirs via machine learning.

Novel machine learning computational tools open new perspectives for quantum information systems. Here we adopt the open-source programming library TensorFlow to design multi-level quantum gates, including a computing reservoir represented by a random unitary matrix. In optics, the reservoir is a disordered medium or a multi-modal fiber.

Quantum key establishment via a multimode fiber.

Quantum communication aims to provide absolutely secure transmission of secret information. State-of-the-art methods encode symbols into single photons or coherent light with much less than one photon on average. For long-distance communication, typically a single-mode fiber is used and significant effort has been devoted already to increase the data carrying capacity of a single optical line.

8×8 reconfigurable quantum photonic processor based on silicon nitride waveguides.

The development of large-scale optical quantum information processing circuits ground on the stability and reconfigurability enabled by integrated photonics. We demonstrate a reconfigurable 8×8 integrated linear optical network based on silicon nitride waveguides for quantum information processing. Our processor implements a novel optical architecture enabling any arbitrary linear transformation and constitutes the largest programmable circuit reported so far on this platform.

Uniform line fillings.

Deterministic fabrication of random metamaterials requires filling of a space with randomly oriented and randomly positioned chords with an on-average homogenous density and orientation, which is a nontrivial task. We describe a method to generate fillings with such chords, lines that run from edge to edge of the space, in any dimension. We prove that the method leads to random but on-average homogeneous and rotationally invariant fillings of circles, balls, and arbitrary-dimensional hyperballs from which other shapes such as rectangles and cuboids can be cut.

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.

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.

Aberrations of the point spread function of a multimode fiber due to partial mode excitation.

We investigate the point spread function of a multimode fiber. The distortion of the focal spot created on the fiber output facet is studied for a variety of the parameters. We develop a theoretical model of wavefront shaping through a multimode fiber and use it to confirm our experimental results and analyze the nature of the focal distortions.

Quantum optics of lossy asymmetric beam splitters.

We theoretically investigate quantum interference of two single photons at a lossy asymmetric beam splitter, the most general passive 2×2 optical circuit. The losses in the circuit result in a non-unitary scattering matrix with a non-trivial set of constraints on the elements of the scattering matrix. Our analysis using the noise operator formalism shows that the loss allows tunability of quantum interference to an extent not possible with a lossless beam splitter.

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.

Rotational memory effect of a multimode fiber.

We demonstrate the rotational memory effect in a multimode fiber. Rotating the incident wavefront around the fiber core axis leads to a rotation of the resulting pattern of the fiber output without significant changes in the resulting speckle pattern. The rotational memory effect can be exploited for non-invasive imaging or ultrafast high-resolution scanning through a multimode fiber.

Programmable multiport optical circuits in opaque scattering materials.

We propose and experimentally verify a method to program the effective transmission matrix of general multiport linear optical circuits in random multiple-scattering materials by phase modulation of incident wavefronts. We demonstrate the power of our method by programming linear optical circuits in white paint layers with 2 inputs and 2 outputs, and 2 inputs and 3 outputs. Using interferometric techniques we verify our ability to program any desired phase relation between the outputs.

Programming balanced optical beam splitters in white paint.

Wavefront shaping allows for ultimate control of light propagation in multiple-scattering media by adaptive manipulation of incident waves. We shine two separate wavefront-shaped beams on a layer of dry white paint to create two enhanced output spots of equal intensity. We experimentally confirm by interference measurements that the output spots are almost correlated like the two outputs of an ideal balanced beam splitter.

Feedback cooling of a single neutral atom.

We demonstrate feedback cooling of the motion of a single rubidium atom trapped in a high-finesse optical resonator to a temperature of about 160  μK. Time-dependent transmission and intensity-correlation measurements prove the reduction of the atomic position uncertainty. The feedback increases the 1/e storage time into the 1 s regime, 30 times longer than without feedback.

Continuous guided beams of slow and internally cold polar molecules.

We describe the combination of buffer-gas cooling with electrostatic velocity filtering to produce a high-flux continuous guided beam of internally cold and slow polar molecules. In a previous paper (L.D.

Cavity cooling of internal molecular motion.

We predict that it is possible to cool rotational, vibrational, and translational degrees of freedom of molecules by coupling a molecular dipole transition to an optical cavity. The dynamics is numerically simulated for a realistic set of experimental parameters using OH molecules. The results show that the translational motion is cooled to a few muK and the internal state is prepared in one of the two ground states of the two decoupled rotational ladders in a few seconds.