Exploiting disorder for perfect focusing

Abstract

Optical microscopy and manipulation methods rely on the ability to focus light to a small volume. However, in inhomogeneous media such as biological tissue, light is scattered out of the focusing beam. Disordered scattering is thought to fundamentally limit the resolution and penetration depth of optical methods1,2,3. Here we demonstrate, in an optical experiment, that scattering can be used to improve, rather than deteriorate, the sharpness of the focus. The resulting focus is even sharper than that in a transparent medium. By using scattering in the medium behind a lens, light was focused to a spot ten times smaller than the diffraction limit of that lens. Our method is the optical equivalent of highly successful methods for improving the resolution and communication bandwidth of ultrasound, radio waves and microwaves4,5,6. Our results, obtained using spatial wavefront shaping, apply to all coherent methods for focusing through scattering matter, including phase conjugation7 and time-reversal4. Light is scattered out of a focusing beam when an inhomogeneous medium is placed between the lens and the focal plane. Now, scientists experimentally demonstrate that scattering can be exploited to improve, rather than deteriorate, the focusing resolution of a lens by using wavefront shaping to compensate for scattering.