Neural Wavefront Shaping

Imaging through scattering is arguably the most important open problem in optics. If one could overcome scattering, one could (a) see through tissue to observe "biology in action" at cellular scale; (b) see through fog, smoke, and inclement weather to safely navigate in adverse conditions; (c) see through the atmosphere and allow ground-based telescopes to outperform James Webb for a fraction of the cost; and (d) see through thin fiber bundles to enable minimally invasive endoscopy. This talk describes our recently-developed guidestar-free approach to imaging through scattering and other optical aberrations; neural wavefront shaping (NeuWS). NeuWS integrates maximum likelihood estimation, measurement modulation, and neural signal representations to reconstruct diffraction-limited images through strong static and dynamic scattering media without guidestars, sparse targets, controlled illumination, nor specialized image sensors. We experimentally demonstrate guidestar-free, wide field-of-view, high-resolution, diffraction-limited imaging of extended, nonsparse, and static/dynamic scenes captured through static/dynamic aberrations.