Optical Imaging With the Use of a Scattering Lens

“Turbidity” caused by multiple light scattering distorts the propagation of waves, and thus undermines optical imaging. For example, translucent biological tissues exhibiting optical turbidity have posed limitations on the imaging depth and energy transmission. Here, we introduce a novel method called turbid lens imaging (TLI) that records a transmission matrix of a scattering medium charactering the input-output response of the medium. The knowledge of this transmission matrix allows one to find an incident wave out of the distorted transmitted wave. Therefore, it converts the highly complex medium into a useful imaging optics. We demonstrate that the image distortion by a scattering medium can be eliminated by the use of the transmission matrix and a clean object image can be retrieved as a result. We extend TLI for imaging through a multimode optical fiber, which is also a scattering medium, and demonstrate an endoscopic imaging by using a single multimode optical fiber itself as a lens. In addition, we show that TLI removes the pixelation artifact in using an image fiber bundle and improve spatial resolution. Our method of making use of multiple light scattering will lay a foundation for advance optical bioimaging methods.