Mode-selective image upconversion through turbulence

Abstract

We experimentally study a nonlinear optical approach to selective manipulation and detection of structured images mixed with turbulent noise. Unlike any existing adaptive-optics method by applying compensating modulation directly on the images, here we account for the turbulence indirectly, by modulating only the pump driving the nonlinear process but not the images themselves. This indirect approach eliminates any signal modulation loss or noise, while allowing more flexible and capable operations. Using specifically sum frequency generation in a lithium niobate crystal, we demonstrate selective upconversion of Laguerre-Gaussian spatial modes mixed with turbulent noise. The extinction reaches ∼40 dB without turbulence, and maintains ∼20 dB in the presence of strong turbulence. This technique could find utilities in classical and quantum communications, compressive imaging, pattern recognition, and so on.