Abstract

The ability to measure a scattering medium’s optical transfer matrix, the mapping between any spatial input and output, has enabled applications such as imaging to be performed through media which would otherwise be opaque due to scattering. However, the scattering of light occurs not just in space, but also in time. We complete the characterization of scatter by extending optical transfer matrix methods into the time domain, allowing any spatiotemporal input state at one end to be mapped directly to its corresponding spatiotemporal output state. We have measured the optical transfer function of a multimode fiber in its entirety; it consists of 420 modes in/out at 32768 wavelengths, the most detailed complete characterization of multimode waveguide light propagation to date, to the best of our knowledge. We then demonstrate the ability to generate any spatial/polarization state at the output of the fiber at any wavelength, as well as predict the temporal response of any spatial/polarization input state.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

Characterizing a 14 × 14 OAM mode transfer matrix of a ring-core fiber based on quadrature phase-shift interference

Guoxuan Zhu, Yujie Chen, Yuehan Liu, Yanfeng Zhang, and Siyuan Yu
Opt. Lett. 42(7) 1257-1260 (2017)

110x110 optical mode transfer matrix inversion

Joel Carpenter, Benjamin J. Eggleton, and Jochen Schröder
Opt. Express 22(1) 96-101 (2014)

Spatiotemporal characterization of supercontinuum extending from the visible to the mid-infrared in a multimode graded-index optical fiber

K. Krupa, C. Louot, V. Couderc, M. Fabert, R. Guenard, B. M. Shalaby, A. Tonello, D. Pagnoux, P. Leproux, A. Bendahmane, R. Dupiol, G. Millot, and S. Wabnitz
Opt. Lett. 41(24) 5785-5788 (2016)

Mode crosstalk matrix measurement of a 1  km elliptical core few-mode optical fiber

Giovanni Milione, Ezra Ip, Ming-Jun Li, Jefferey Stone, Gaozhu Peng, and Ting Wang
Opt. Lett. 41(12) 2755-2758 (2016)

Mode-dependent characterization of photonic lanterns

Dawei Yu, Songnian Fu, Zizheng Cao, Ming Tang, Deming Liu, Ian Giles, Ton Koonen, and Chigo Okonkwo
Opt. Lett. 41(10) 2302-2305 (2016)