Speaker
Description
The field generated by three-wave mixing in a second-order nonlinear crystal, under suitable approximations, can be described by the product of the two input fields. By controlling the amplitude and phase of the input fields, a single nonlinear crystal can be used to perform many different transformations on the generated field. Here we use difference frequency generation, an effect of three-wave mixing in a nonlinear crystal, to produce different two-dimensional beam shapes by encoding the transmission function of the desired optical element onto one of the input beams. In this way, we demonstrate using a nonlinear crystal as a two-dimensional, virtual optical element. Furthermore, the multiplication of fields in the crystal allows it to exhibit behaviour analogous to that of an artificial neuron, the fundamental unit of a neural network. We classify different Laguerre-Gaussian modes by encoding the mode to be classified on one beam entering the nonlinear crystal, and a phase-only mask composed of different Zernike polynomials with trainable coefficients on the other. This approach of exploiting the multiplication of fields that result from three-wave mixing allows for reconfigurable optics with just a single nonlinear crystal.
| Apply for student award at which level: | MSc |
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| Consent on use of personal information: Abstract Submission | Yes, I ACCEPT |