Dr Mickael Mounaix

UQ Amplify Fellow

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
m.mounaix@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 53529

Overview

PhD project fully funded available now!

My main research area is the control of the spatial and spectral/temporal properties of light, particularly through complex disordered photonics materials such as multimode optical fibers, white paint, fog or biological tissues. The scattering of light through these materials inhibits many applications such as biomedical imaging and optical telecommunications, as it prevents light from being delivered to the desired position(s) at the desired time(s).

To achieve such level of control, I’m using a spatial light modulator in addition to some lab-made software techniques.

Recent research achievements:

This work is part of an international collaboration with Nokia Bell Laboratories, Crawford Hill Labs in Holmdel, NJ, USA with Dr Nicolas Fontaine and colleagues.

Lossless linear propagation of waves is linear in time, a principle which can be used to create time reversed waves. Such waves are “pre-scattered” spatio-temporal fields, which propagate through a complex medium (which induces scattering) and arrive after propagation as a desired target field. Time reversed waves were previously demonstrated for relatively lower frequency waves such as water waves, acoustics waves and micro waves. Many attempts have been made to extend these techniques into optics, however the much higher frequencies of optics do not able a direct measurement of the spatio-temporal optical field, flip its time response and send it backwards. A fully time reversed wave is a volumetric field (2 transverse and 1 longitudinal dimensions) with arbitrary amplitude, phase and polarization at every point in space and time. The creation of such fields has not been possible in optics.

We have demonstrated time reversed optical waves with a new device capable of independently controlling all light’s classical degrees of freedom simultaneously. Such device is capable of generating a sequence of arbitrary 2D spatial/polarisation wavefronts at a bandwidth-limited rate (4.4 THz). This new ability to manipulate the full field of an optical beam could be used to control both linear and nonlinear optical phenomena.

Youtube video article: 5 min abstract link which explains the motivation, the setup and some applications. A 75 minutes full technical presentation link presents in depth the results with pedagocial graphics.

The paper was published in "Time reversed optical waves by arbitrary vector spatiotemporal field generation", Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 5813 (2020) link

Press Release: Physicists create time reversed optical waves, by the UQ News media team link, reposted by different science websites including Phys.org

Conference presentation: I have presented these results at the CLEO virtual conference 2020, the video is accessible for free after registration on the CLEO page (paper SM2H.7) link

With Dr Joel Carpenter, we have demonstrated how to control light delivery after propagation through a multimode fibre in the temporal domain. Because of the natural mode coupling within a multimode fibre, the impulse response of light gets temporally stretched, over multiple order of magnitudes (picoseconds to nanoseconds) compared to the initial pulse duration (usually ~100 femtoseconds). We notably demonstrated in this work how to maximize the impulse response at arbitrary delay(s), and how to minimize the impulse response, with polarization-resolution.

The results were published in “Control of the temporal and polarization response of a multimode fiber” Nature Communications 10 5085 (2019) link

Press Release: Cutting through fog with laser focus, by the UQ News media team link, reposted by different science websites including Phys.org

Conference presentation: I have presented these results at the CLEO virtual conference 2020, the video is accessible for free after registration on the CLEO page (paper SM1L.3) link

Publications

  • Shen, Yijie, Zhan, Qiwen, Wright, Logan G., Christodoulides, Demetrios N, Wise, Frank, Willner, Alan, Zou, Kaiheng, Zhao, Zhe, Porras, Miguel Angel, Chong, Andy, Wan, Chenhao, Bliokh, Konstantin Yu, Liao, Chen-Ting, Hernandez Garcia, Carlos, Murnane, Margaret M., Yessenov, Murat, Abouraddy, A, Wong, Liang Jie, GO, Michael, Kumar, Suraj, Guo, Cheng, Fan, Shanhui, Papasimakis, Nikitas, Zheludev, Nikolay I, Chen, Lu, Zhu, Wenqi, Agrawal, Amit, Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K. ... Forbes, Andrew (2023). Roadmap on spatiotemporal light fields. Journal of Optics, 25 (9) 093001, 1-59. doi: 10.1088/2040-8986/ace4dc

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Ryf, Roland, Chen, Haoshuo, Alvarado-Zacarias, Juan Carlos and Carpenter, Joel A. (2023). Arbitrary vector spatiotemporal beamshaping: any amplitude, phase and polarization at any delay. SPIE Photonics West 2023, San Francisco, CA United States, 28 January - 2 February 2023. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2652118

  • Ploschner, Martin, Morote, Marcos M., Dahl, Daniel S., Mounaix, Mickael, Light, Greta, Rakic, Aleksandar D. and Carpenter, Joel (2023). Spatial tomography of light resolved in time, spectrum, and polarization. Smart Photonic and Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits 2023;, San Francisco, CA USA, 28 January-3 February 2023. Washington, DC USA: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2658893

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

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Available Projects

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Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Ryf, Roland, Chen, Haoshuo, Alvarado-Zacarias, Juan Carlos and Carpenter, Joel A. (2023). Arbitrary vector spatiotemporal beamshaping: any amplitude, phase and polarization at any delay. SPIE Photonics West 2023, San Francisco, CA United States, 28 January - 2 February 2023. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2652118

  • Ploschner, Martin, Morote, Marcos M., Dahl, Daniel S., Mounaix, Mickael, Light, Greta, Rakic, Aleksandar D. and Carpenter, Joel (2023). Spatial tomography of light resolved in time, spectrum, and polarization. Smart Photonic and Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits 2023;, San Francisco, CA USA, 28 January-3 February 2023. Washington, DC USA: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2658893

  • Mounaix, M., Fontaine, N.K., Neilson, D. and Carpenter, J. (2023). Proof-of-concept of a 90-port optical time reverser over 90nm bandwidth and two planes of phase manipulation. 2023 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO 2023, San Jose, CA United States, 7 - 12 May 2023. Washington, DC United States: Optica Publishing Group. doi: 10.1364/cleo_si.2023.sth3n.5

  • Morote, M. Maestre, Plöschner, M., Mounaix, M., Komonen, A.V and Carpenter, J. (2023). Referenceless, low-coherence, multimode fiber characterization. 2023 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO 2023, San Jose, CA United States, 7 - 12 May 2023. Washington, DC United States: Optica Publishing Group. doi: 10.1364/cleo_si.2023.sm3l.1

  • Dahl, Daniel S., Plöschner, Martin, Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K. and Carpenter, Joel (2022). High-dimensional Stokes-space spatial beam analyzer. Digital Holography and 3-D Imaging 2022, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1–4 August 2022. Washington, D.C.: Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA). doi: 10.1364/dh.2022.w5a.50

  • Carpenter, Joel, Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Ryf, Roland, Chen, Haoshuo and Alvarado-Zacarias, Juan Carlos (2022). Time reversed optical waves by arbitrary vector spatiotemporal field generation. 2022 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim, Sapporo, Japan, 31 August–5 September 2022. Washington, DC United States: Optica Publishing Group. doi: 10.1364/cleopr.2022.cwp10b_06

  • Fontaine, Nicolas K., Mazur, Mikael, Chen, Haoshuo, Ryf, Roland, Neilson, David T., Mounaix, Mickael and Carpenter, Joel (2021). Waveform generation in space, frequency, time and polarization. European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), Bordeaux, France, 13-16 September 2021. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ECOC52684.2021.9606103

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Ryf, Roland, Chen, Haoshuo, Alvarado-Zacarias, Juan Carlos and Carpenter, Joel (2020). Arbitrary vector spatiotemporal wavefront shaper. 2020 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC), Vancouver, Canada, 28 September-1 October 2020. Piscataway, NJ United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/IPC47351.2020.9252436

  • Mounaix, Mickael and Carpenter, Joel (2020). Controlling the temporal impulse response of light propagating through a multimode fiber. 2020 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), San Jose, CA USA, 10-15 May 2020. Piscataway, NJ USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1364/cleo_si.2020.sm1l.3

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Ryf, Roland, Chen, Haoshuo, Alvarado-Zacarias, Juan Carlos and Carpenter, Joel (2020). Optical time reverser. 2020 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), San Jose, CA USA, 10-15 May 2020. Piscataway, NJ USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1364/cleo_si.2020.sm2h.7

  • Mounaix, Mickael and Carpenter, Joel (2020). Controlling the temporal impulse response of light propagating through a multimode fiber. CLEO: Science and Innovations, CLEO_SI 2020, Washington, DC United States, 10–15 May 2020. Washington, DC United States: Optica Publishing Group. doi: 10.1364/CLEO_SI.2020.SM1L.3

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Chen, Haoshuo, Ryf, Roland, Zacarias, J.C. Alvarado- and Carpenter, Joel (2020). Full polarization-resolved spatiotemporal beam shaping. Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Pacific Rim 2020, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 3 - 5 August 2020. Washington, DC, United States: The Optical Society. doi: 10.1364/cleopr.2020.c3b_2

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T., Ryf, Roland, Chen, Haoshuo, Alvarado-Zacarias, Juan Carlos and Carpenter, Joel (2020). Optical time reverser. 2020 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), San Jose, CA United States, 10-15 May 2020. Washington, DC United States: Optica Publishing Group. doi: 10.1364/CLEO_SI.2020.SM2H.7

  • Mounaix, Mickael and Carpenter, Joel (2019). Temporal control of the combination over all spatial and polarization modes propagating through a multimode fibre. 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC), Munich, Germany, 23-27 June 2019. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/cleoe-eqec.2019.8871823

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Chen, Haoshuo, Ryf, Roland, Neilson, David T. and Carpenter, Joel A. (2019). Time reversal of optical waves. AOS Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology (ACOFT) and Australian Conference on Optics, Lasers, and Spectroscopy (ACOLS) 2019, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 8 - 10 December 2019. Bellingham, WA, United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2556661

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Neilson, David T. and Carpenter, Joel (2019). Time reversal of optical waves. Frontiers in Optics 2019, Washington, DC, United States, 15–19 September 2019. Washington, DC, United States: OSA. doi: 10.1364/fio.2019.ftu6b.5

  • Mounaix, Mickael, de Aguiar, Hilton B. and Gigan, Sylvain (2018). Temporal recompression of an ultrashort pulse of light with a broadband transmission matrix. SPIE BiOS 2018, San Francisco, CA, United States, 27-28 January 2018. SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2290893

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Defienne, Hugo, Andreoli, Daria, Volpe, Giorgio, Katz, Ori, Grésillon, Samuel and Gigan, Sylvain (2017). Coherent spatio-temporal control of pulsed light through multiple scattering media. 2017 European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and European Quantum Electronics Conference, Munich, Germany, 25-29 July 2017. OSA - The Optical Society.

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Defienne, Hugo and Gigan, Sylvain (2017). Deterministic light focusing in space and time through multiple scattering media with a Time-Resolved Transmission Matrix approach (Conference Presentation). Adaptive Optics and Wavefront Control for Biological Systems III, San Francisco, CA, United States, 28–30 January 2017. Bellingham, WA, United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2251820

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Boniface, Antoine, Blochet, Baptiste, Piestun, Rafael and Gigan, Sylvain (2017). Point-spread-function engineering through a complex medium. 2017 European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and European Quantum Electronics Conference, Munich, Germany, 25-29 July 2017. OSA - The Optical Society.

  • Boniface, Antoine, Mounaix, Mickael, Blochet, Baptiste, Piestun, Rafael and Gigan, Sylvain (2017). Sub-diffraction limit focusing through a complex medium by virtual Fourier filtering. Conference on Adaptive Optics and Wavefront Control for Biological Systems III, San Francisco, CA, United States, 28 - 30 January 2017. Bellingham, WA, United States: S P I E - International Society for Optical Engineering. doi: 10.1117/12.2251864

  • Mounaix, Mickael, Andreoli, Daria, Defienne, Hugo, Volpe, Giorgio, Katz, Ori, Grésillon, Samuel and Gigan, Sylvain (2016). Coherent spatiotemporal control of light through a multiply scattering medium. 2016 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), San Jose, California, United States, 5-10 June 2016. Piscataway, NJ, USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1364/cleo_qels.2016.fw4d.3

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.