Theory, simulations, experiments and applications involving random beams

Olga Korotkova, University of Miami

Goergen 101, Sloan Auditorium

Abstract:
Recently several new classes of random stationary beams having different shapes of correlation functions were introduced theoretically and realized experimentally. Unlike conventional random beams with Gaussian correlations, whose intensity profiles remain Gaussian on free-space propagation, the novel beams can change the shape of their intensity to a prescribed one in the far zone, from any profile in the source plane. Among important average intensity profiles are flat-tops, rings, frames and cages. The most convenient ways of synthesizing the sources of such random beams is with the help of the spatial light modulators. Potential applications are envisioned for distant material surface processing and particle manipulation, as well as communications, imaging and sensing in random media. Preliminary computer simulations and experiments show that the new beams exhibit robust features on propagating in random media, such as atmosphere, ocean waters and bio-tissues in terms of both their average intensity and scintillations. In the electromagnetic generalization the possibility of full control of the far-field polarization properties from the source plane is also a possibility.

Bio:
Dr. Olga Korotkova graduated from the Samara State University, Russia, with BS in mathematics in 1999, the University of Central Florida with MS in 2002, and with PhD in 2003, both in applied mathematics. She worked at the University of Rochester as a postdoc of Prof. Emil Wolf from 2004 to 2007. In 2007 she accepted the position of the Assistant professor at the Physics Department, University of Miami and was promoted to the Associate Professor in 2012. Olga Korotkova has published two books and about 120 peer-reviewed papers in the area of statistical optics, both theoretical and experimental. She is a Topical Editor for Optics Letters since 2009 and is a chair of the "Atmospheric and Oceanic Propagation of EM waves" conference at the SPIE "Photonics West" meetings held annually.