Illuminating new horizons: Navigating nonlinear scattering with precision

Breakthrough method harnesses nonlinear scattering waves through advanced scattering matrix techniques

2023-08-31

(Press-News.org) In the intricate world of light, a journey through inhomogeneous media often leads to distortions in space, time, spectrum, and polarization. These distortions, detrimental to applications like optical manipulation, imaging, and communication, have long posed a challenge. Enter the art of wavefront shaping (WS) — a potent tool for correcting these wave maladies in linear optics. But that's not all. Nonlinearity adds a twist, finding purpose in fields from biological sensing to phototherapy. Now, picture combining these forces — nonlinearity and WS — opening doors to unprecedented control.

Yet, most existing setups rely on iterative feedback loops, guzzling computational resources and time. There's a smarter way now. As reported in Advanced Photonics, a team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) has developed a scattering matrix (SM) method that is capable of sculpting light output with minimal optimization time. As a bonus, SM offers insights into the scattering medium's mesoscopic traits, unveiling memory effects and transmission eigenchannels.

The SJTU team has taken the concept further. They've cracked the code to determine the SM of a scattering medium embedded with quadratic nonlinearity. Their method, using a 256x256 SM dimension, emerges from four-phase interferometry. They've proved its validity by coaxing nonlinear signals into refocused single and double spots, employing optical phase conjugation.

Imagine, a carefully orchestrated dance of light — where a matrix row's phase pattern triggers precise nonlinear focus. The result? Sum-frequency generation dances in multiple spots across the region of interest, each with comparable intensity and a remarkable peak-to-background ratio of about 25.

But that's just the beginning. The SM method wields unparalleled nonlinear scattered light control. The researchers showcase point-by-point scans along predefined paths, adjusting the phase pattern switch speed to fine-tune scanning pace. Their breakthrough offers a doorway to high-resolution scanning microscopy and particle trapping through dense, scattering media. Corresponding author Xianfeng Chen, principal investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks in Shanghai, remarks, “The scattering-matrix approach of nonlinear scattering medium opens a path towards nonlinear signal recovery, nonlinear imaging, microscopic object tracking, and complex environment quantum information processing.”

In essence, this work reimagines nonlinear scattering. Its implications span nonlinear signal recovery, microscopic imaging, and tracking through scattering media, even delving into the intricate realm of quantum information processing within complex environments. The future of light manipulation looks astonishingly bright.

For details, read the Gold Open Access article by Ni, Liu, et al., “Nonlinear harmonic wave manipulation in nonlinear scattering medium via scattering-matrix method,” Adv. Photon. 5(4) 046010 (2023), doi 10.1117/1.AP.5.4.046010.

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

Illuminating new horizons: Navigating nonlinear scattering with precision 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Digging deeper into how vaccines work against parasitic disease

2023-08-31

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists have established the effectiveness of vaccines they developed to prevent the disfiguring skin disease leishmaniasis in animal studies, and Phase 1 human trial planning is in motion for the most promising candidate. But in new work, the research team has determined how these vaccine candidates, created using mutated disease-causing parasites, prompt molecular-level changes in host cells that have specific roles in helping generate the immune response. Despite using the same CRISPR ...

Housing heroes: New program to support veterans experiencing homelessness

2023-08-31

Since 2009, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness across the United States has shrunk by more than 50%, according to a 2022 Department of Housing report. With the support of a $150,000 grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the University of Missouri School of Law Veterans Clinic is aiming to continue this trend here at home with a new program designed to further empower veterans in taking steps out of homelessness. The Veterans Outreach Program will help attorneys connect with veterans experiencing homelessness with the goal of offering them the legal assistance ...

Mapping the coronavirus spike protein could provide insight into vaccine development

2023-08-31

Although the COVID-19 pandemic was the first time most of humanity learned of the now infamous disease, the family of coronaviruses was first identified in the mid-1960s. In a new study, molecular biologist Steven Van Doren, a scientist in the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, has uncovered unexpected actions of a key player in how the coronavirus infects its target — a discovery that could guide further vaccine development. Funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Van Doren and his team studied the fusion peptide, an important feature of the spike protein that serves to bind the virus with ...

Dectin-1 stimulation promotes distinct inflammatory signature in HIV and aging

2023-08-31

“To our knowledge, our study is the first to evaluate the specific function of Dectin-1 in the setting of aging and HIV-infection.” BUFFALO, NY- August 31, 2023 – A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 16, entitled, “Dectin-1 stimulation promotes a distinct inflammatory signature in the setting of HIV-infection and aging.” Dectin-1 is an innate immune receptor that recognizes and binds β-1, 3/1, 6 glucans on fungi. In this new study, researchers Archit Kumar, Jiawei Wang, Allen Esterly, Chris ...

Excess ceramide and disrupted iron metabolism in neuronal mitochondria found to be the cause for MEPAN syndrome

2023-08-31

A recent study published in Nature Metabolism has revealed the pathogenic mechanism underlying a rare pediatric neurodegenerative disorder known as mitochondrial enoyl reductase protein-associated neurodegeneration (MEPAN) syndrome. The study was led by Dr. Hugo J. Bellen, distinguished service professor at Baylor College of Medicine, and Chair of Neurogenetics at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital (Duncan NRI), and Dr. Debdeep Dutta, a postdoctoral fellow in the Bellen lab. The Duncan NRI team found that in patients and animal models of this disorder, a large number of neurons ...

A new approach to stop cancer growth?

2023-08-31

CLEVELAND– Case Western Reserve University biochemical researchers have identified a new function of a key protein that leads to cancer–a finding they believe could lead to more effective treatments for a range of cancers and other diseases. The protein is LSD1 (lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A), which functions as a type of traffic cop inside human cells. It controls gene activity during embryonic development and regulating gene expression throughout life. Scientists have also identified in recent years that the overexpression of LSD1—in this instance, producing too many proteins—can ...

Study: ‘Suicidal’ mechanism discovered in ion channel receptors enables the sensing of heat and pain

2023-08-31

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The ability to accurately detect heat and pain is critical to human survival, but scientists have struggled to understand on a molecular level exactly how our bodies sense these potential risks. Now, University at Buffalo researchers have unraveled the complex biological phenomena that drive these critical functions. Their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Aug. 28, has uncovered a previously unknown and completely unexpected “suicidal” reaction in ion channel receptors that explains the complicated mechanisms that underlie sensitivity to temperature and pain. The ...

Scientists unpick how lung cells induce immune response to influenza

2023-08-31

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered some new and surprising ways that viral RNA and influenza virus are detected by human lung cells, which has potential implications for treating people affected by such viruses. Influenza viruses remain a major threat to human health and can cause severe symptoms in young, elderly, and immuno-compromised populations, leading to annual epidemics which endanger between 3 and 5 million people of severe illness and cause 290,000 to 650,000 deaths worldwide. These viruses primarily target respiratory epithelial cells ...

Expanding the impact of CAR T cell therapy: An immunotherapy strategy against all blood cancers

2023-08-31

PHILADELPHIA – A broad new strategy could hold hope for treating virtually all blood cancers with CAR T cell therapy, which is currently approved for five subtypes of blood cancer. Scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the potential efficacy of this approach in preclinical tests. In the study, published today in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers used engineered CAR T cells to target CD45—a surface marker found on nearly all blood cells, including nearly all blood cancer cells. Because CD45 is found on healthy blood cells too, the research team used CRISPR base-editing to develop a method ...

New project to make data curation accessible

2023-08-31

JooYoung Seo, assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded a $649,921 Early Career Development grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant RE-254891-OLS-23), under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which supports “developing a diverse workforce of librarians to better meet the changing learning and information needs of the American public by enhancing the training and professional development of librarians, developing faculty and library leaders, and recruiting and ...

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Illuminating new horizons: Navigating nonlinear scattering with precision

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: