arXiv subjects

Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Cuevas

Publications and source records attributed to Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Cuevas.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A practical guide to Digital Micro-mirror Devices (DMDs) for wavefront shaping

Digital micromirror devices have gained popularity in wavefront shaping, offering a high frame rate alternative to liquid crystal spatial light modulators. They are relatively inexpensive, offer high resolution, are easy to operate, and a single device can be used in a broad optical bandwidth. However, some technical drawbacks must be considered to achieve optimal performance. These issues, often undocumented by manufacturers, mostly stem from the device's original design for video projection applications. Herein, we present a guide to characterize and mitigate these effects. Our focus is on providing simple and practical solutions that can be easily incorporated into a typical wavefront shaping setup.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Wavefront shaping enhanced nano-optomechanics down to the quantum precision limit

We introduce wavefront shaping as a tool for optimizing the sensitivity in nano-optomechanical measurement schemes. We perform multimode output analysis of an optomechanical system consisting of a focused laser beam coupled to the transverse motion of a tapered cantilever, and demonstrate that wavefront shaping enables a 350-fold enhancement of the measurement signal-to-noise (+25.5 dB) compared to standard split-detection, close to the quantum precision limit. Our results open new perspectives in terms of sensitivity and control of the optomechanical interaction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Open transmission channels in multimode fiber cavities with random mode mixing

The transport of light in disordered media is governed by open transmission channels, which enable nearly complete transmission of the incident power, despite low average transmission. Extensively studied in diffusive media and chaotic cavities, open channels exhibit unique properties such as universal spatial structure and extended dwell times. However, their experimental study is challenging due to the large number of modes required for control and measurement. We propose a multimode fiber cavity (MMFC) as a platform to explore open channels. Leveraging mode confinement and finite angular spread, MMFCs enable a full control over all channels. This allowed us to achieve an 18-fold power enhancement by selectively exciting an open channel with a transmission rate of $0.90 \pm 0.04$. By analyzing 100 transmission matrices of MMFC realizations, we observed a bimodal transmission eigenvalue distribution, indicating high channel control and low losses. The scalability of MMFCs, combined with long dwell times and potential for nonlinear phenomena, offers new opportunities for studying complex wave transport.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Characterization and Exploitation of the Rotational Memory Effect in Multimode Fibers

In an ideal perfectly straight multimode fiber with a circular-core, the symmetry ensures that rotating the input wavefront leads to a corresponding rotation of the output wavefront. This invariant property, known as the rotational memory effect (RME), remains independent of the typically unknown output profile. The RME thus offers significant potential for imaging and telecommunication applications. However, in real-life fibers, this effect is degraded by intrinsic imperfections and external perturbations, and is challenging to observe because of its acute sensitivity to misalignments and aberrations in the optical setup. Thanks to processing involving a spatial light modulator, we efficiently overcome these measurement biases, allowing for precise quantification of the RME. We establish an experimental and theoretical framework for studying and manipulating the RME in multimode fibers. Theoretical predictions are consistent with experimental data and simulations, connecting the shape of the angular-dependent correlation of the RME to the geometrical properties of the core deformation. This work opens the road for accurate characterization of the distributed disorder originating from the fabrication process and calibration-less imaging in multimode fibers.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Vectorial phase retrieval in super-resolution polarization microscopy

In single molecule orientation localization microscopy, valuable information about the orientation and longitudinal position of each molecule is often encoded in the shape of the point spread function (PSF). This shape, though, can be affected significantly by aberrations and other imperfections in the imaging system, leading to erroneous estimation of the measured parameters. A basic solution is to model the aberrations as a scalar mask in the pupil plane that is characterized through phase retrieval algorithms. However, this approach is not suitable for cases involving polarization-dependent aberrations, introduced either through unintentional anisotropy in the elements or by using birefringent masks for PSF shaping. Here, this problem is addressed by introducing a fully vectorial model in which the polarization aberrations are represented via a spatially-dependent Jones matrix, commonly used to describe polarization-dependent elements. It is then shown that these aberrations can be characterized from a set of PSF measurements at varying focal planes and for various polarization projections. This PZ-stack of PSFs, which contains both phase and polarization projection diversity, is used in a phase retrieval algorithm based on nonlinear optimization to determine the aberrations. This methodology is demonstrated with numerical simulations and experimental measurements. The pyPSFstack software developed for the modeling and characterization is made freely available.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Crashing with disorder: Reaching the precision limit with tensor-based wavefront shaping

Perturbations in complex media, due to their own dynamical evolution or to external effects, are often seen as detrimental. Therefore, a common strategy, especially for telecommunication and imaging applications, is to limit the sensitivity to those perturbations in order to avoid them. Here, we instead consider crashing straight into them in order to maximize the interaction between light and the perturbations and thus produce the largest change in output intensity. Our work hinges on the innovative use of tensor-based techniques, presently at the forefront of machine learning explorations, to study intensity-based measurements where its quadratic relationship to the field prevents the use of standard matrix methods. With this tensor-based framework, we are able to identify the optimal crashing channel which maximizes the change in its output intensity distribution and the Fisher information encoded in it about a given perturbation. We further demonstrate experimentally its superiority for robust and precise sensing applications. Additionally, we derive the appropriate strategy to reach the precision limit for intensity-based measurements leading to an increase in Fisher information by more than four orders of magnitude with respect to the mean for random wavefronts when measured with the pixels of a camera.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Ray and caustic structure of Ince-Gauss beams

The Ince-Gauss beams, separable in elliptic coordinates, are studied through a ray-optical approach. Their ray structure can be represented over a ray-Poincaré sphere by generalized Viviani curves (intersections of a cylinder and a sphere). This representation shows two topologically different regimes, in which the curve is composed of one or two loops. The overall beam shape is described by the ray caustics that delimit the beams' bright regions. These caustics are inferred from the generalized Viviani curve through a geometric procedure that reveals connections with other physical systems and geometrical constructions. Depending on the regime, the caustics are composed either of two confocal ellipses or of segments of an ellipse and a hyperbola that are confocal. The weighting of the rays is shown to follow the two-mode meanfield Gross-Pitaevskii equations, which can be mapped to the equation of a simple pendulum. Finally, it is shown that the wave field can be accurately estimated from the ray description.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Shaping Single Photons through Multimode Optical Fibers using Mechanical Perturbations

The capacity of information delivered by single photons is boosted by encoding high-dimensional quantum dits in their transverse shape. Transporting such high-dimensional quantum dits in optical networks may be accomplished using multimode optical fibers, which support the low-loss transmission of multiple spatial modes over existing infrastructure. However, when photons propagate through a multimode fiber their transverse shape gets scrambled because of mode mixing and modal interference. This is usually corrected using free-space spatial light modulators, inhibiting a robust all-fiber operation. In this work, we demonstrate an all-fiber approach for controlling the shape of single photons and the spatial correlations between entangled photon pairs, using carefully controlled mechanical perturbations of the fiber. We optimize these perturbations to localize the spatial distribution of a single photon or the spatial correlations of photon pairs in a single spot, enhancing the signal in the optimized spot by over an order of magnitude. Using the same approach we show a similar enhancement for coupling light from a multimode fiber into a single-mode fiber.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Optical polarization skyrmionic fields in free space

We construct optical beams in free space with robust skyrmionic structures in their polarization fields, both in the electric spin vector for near-circular fields and in the polarization direction for near-linear fields, and for both Bloch (spiral) and Néel (hedgehog) textures. These structures are made possible by the spin-orbit coupling of tightly-focused nonparaxial optics as applied to higher-order Full-Poincaré beams, as well as by standing-wave configurations comprising forwards- and backwards-propagating waves. Our constructions show near-uniform circular and linear polarizations, providing a high degree of topological protection in the absence of nonlinear interactions.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Lorenz-Mie scattering of focused light via complex focus fields: an analytic treatment

The Lorenz-Mie scattering of a wide class of focused electromagnetic fields off spherical particles is studied. The focused fields in question are constructed through complex focal displacements, leading to closed-form expressions that can exhibit several interesting physical properties, such as orbital and/or spin angular momentum, spatially-varying polarization, and a controllable degree of focusing. These fields constitute complete bases that can be considered as nonparaxial extensions of the standard Laguerre-Gauss beams and the recently proposed polynomials-of-Gaussians beams. Their analytic form turns out to lead also to closed-form expressions for their multipolar expansion. Such expansion can be used to compute the field scattered by a spherical particle and the resulting forces and torques exerted on it, for any relative position between the field's focus and the particle.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Complete confined bases for beam propagation in Cartesian coordinates

Complete bases that are useful for beam propagation problems and that present the distinct property of being spatially confined at the initial plane are proposed. These bases are constructed in terms of polynomials of Gaussians, in contrast with standard alternatives such as the Hermite-Gaussian basis that are given by a Gaussian times a polynomial. The property of spatial confinement implies that, for all basis elements, the spatial extent at the initial plane is roughly the same. This property leads to an optimal scaling parameter that is independent of truncation order for the fitting of a confined initial field. Given their form as combinations of Gaussians, the paraxial propagation of these basis elements can be modeled analytically.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Polynomials of Gaussians and vortex-Gaussian beams as complete, transversely confined bases

A novel type of discrete basis for paraxial beams is proposed, consisting of monomial vortices times polynomials of Gaussians in the radial variable. These bases have the distinctive property that the effective size of their elements is roughly independent of element order, meaning that the optimal scaling for expanding a localized field does not depend significantly on truncation order. This behavior contrasts with that of bases composed of polynomials times Gaussians, such as Hermite-Gauss and Laguerre-Gauss modes, where the scaling changes roughly as the inverse square root of the truncation order.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Vector-soliton storage and three-pulse-area theorem

In the present manuscript, we present a high-speed method to control, manipulate and retrieve an intense vector soliton stored in the ground state coherences of a four-level atomic system. Additionally, we show the importance of the pulse area in determining the evolution of the system and present a constant in the evolution defined as the three-pulse area, a surprising extension to previously defined pulse areas.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Theory of storage and retrieval of intense-broadband pulses at room temperature: analytical and numerical solutions

We analyze the storage and retrieval of intense-broadband pulses with the added effects of Doppler broadening and detuning in a $Λ$ configuration. We compute analytical solutions via the inverse scattering technique and show how the signal field is transferred to a spin-wave in the atomic medium and later retrieved by the interaction of a control pulse. Due to the intensity of the pulses, the pulse area (as defined for self-induced transparency) plays a key role in the interaction, as it determines the location of the spin wave within the medium. Additionally, we compare our results to non-ideal conditions by considering pulses of finite length and the effect of spontaneous emission.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Multipulse storage and manipulation via solitonic solutions

Solutions to the Maxwell-Bloch equations for a $Λ$ system are computed using the single-soliton Darboux transformation and the nonlinear superposition principle. These allow complete control of information deposited by a signal pulse (with the help of an auxiliary control pulse) in the coherence of the medium's ground states by injecting sub-sequential pulses. Additionally, we study the encoding of two signal pulses and their manipulation by a control pulse and show that multipulse storage and control are possible as long as the imprints made by encoding the signal pulses are sufficiently separated.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Manipulation of optical-pulse-imprinted memory in a $Λ$ system

We examine coherent memory manipulation in a $Λ$-type medium, using the second order solution presented by Groves, Clader and Eberly [J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 46, 224005 (2013)] as a guide. The analytical solution obtained using the Darboux transformation and a nonlinear superposition principle describes complicated soliton-pulse dynamics which, by an appropriate choice of parameters, can be simplified to a well-defined sequence of pulses interacting with the medium. In this report, this solution is reviewed and put to test by means of a series of numerical simulations, encompassing all the parameter space and adding the effects of homogeneous broadening due to spontaneous emission. We find that even though the decohered results deviate from the analytical prediction they do follow a similar trend that could be used as a guide for future experiments.

quant-ph↗