White-Light Image Reconstruction via Seeded Modulation Instability
Yongbin Zhang, Hongjun Liu, Nan Huang, Zhaolu Wang · Physical Review Applied · 2019
Nonlinear-optical image recovery is very important for underwater, atmospheric and biological imaging, but such techniques are held back in practice because dephasing of temporally and spatially incoherent white light spoils most nonlinear optical effects. The authors demonstrate the nonlinear method of $d\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}y\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}m\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}c\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}l$ $s\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}c\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}h\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}s\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}c$ $r\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}s\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}c\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e$, based on seeded modulation instability. This study shows that the signal modes of the entire temporal spectrum carry different gain characteristics, and collectively contribute to the resonance. The work boosts the application of nonlinear optics in white-light imaging with natural or artificial illumination.