A Journey through Modern Optics

PROJECT NUMBER: 86

AUTHOR: Seifeldin Dabbour, Physics | MENTOR: Daniel Adams, Physics

ABSTRACT

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Throughout the year, we developed a strong foundation in the experimental basis of modern optics. The implementations explored were two-pronged, beginning with the development of inexpensive light beam shaping equipment and expanding into the investigation of numerical imaging algorithms and hyperspectral imaging technologies.
To begin the year, we took apart readily available projectors for their encapsulated optics, including the component we are most interested in, the Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). These SLMs allow us to bend and reshape light due to their birefringent properties, enabling the control of incoming light into a reshaped output. This has applications in single-shot computational imaging such as ptychography. To interface with the SLM, the existing projector control system was used, needing only to bypass the interlocks of the system and to make use of algorithms that transform objects from their intrinsic object domain to the probe domain where we can observe them.
In developing these algorithms, we can make use of rapid imaging capabilities in coordination with ultrafast laser systems to record previously untracked, multimodal phenomena such as that exhibited by plasma. In the future, we look to expand this imaging technology to a plethora of additional multimodal and high-frequency systems.

VISUAL PRESENTATION

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

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Seifeldin Dabbour is a junior Engineering Physics major with a minor in computer science, and an interest in optics! Putting these together brought me down the path of ultrafast laser systems and hyperspectral imaging and the topic of my research for this semester. In the future I hope to do more work in developing effective and efficient algorithms!

Sponsored by Phillips 66