6–10 Jul 2026
University of the Western Cape
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
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Controlling randomness: Experimentally simulated scattering with digital holograms

7 Jul 2026, 17:20
1h 20m
Great Hall (University of the Western Cape)

Great Hall

University of the Western Cape

Poster Presentation Track C - Photonics Poster Session 1

Speaker

Kelsey Everts (University of the Witwatersrand)

Description

Systematic studies of light’s propagation through media with spatially varying refractive indices are key to advances in imaging biological tissues, opaque materials and communication through foggy conditions. Laboratory studies typically employ white paint, emulsions or tissue-mimicking phantoms which are difficult to identically reproduce, simulate and often have complex time-consuming multistep fabrication procedures limiting their widespread usage and making highly controlled studies difficult. Here we demonstrate an all-digital solution generating tuneable random distortions by encoding binary random phase masks onto a spatial light modulator. We demonstrate tuneable intensity and phase distortions, closely matched by numerical simulations and show how the distortion strengths span those achievable with physical scatterers. As an example, we apply this to Laguerre-Gaussian beams and show modal crosstalk consistent with results observed in other random media. This digital method thus eliminates complications associated with physical samples and facilitates highly systematic studies of random scattering essential for applications in complex media.

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Author

Kelsey Everts (University of the Witwatersrand)

Co-authors

Presentation materials

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