Adaptive holograms and applications using photorefractive quantum wells

In this paper, I describe three separate applications that share virtually nothing in common other than the use of an adaptive holographic film. These are: 1) femtosecond pulse shaping and dynamic compensation; 2) optical imaging through turbid media; and 3) laser-based ultrasound detection. We have implemented a Fourier-domain ultrafast pulse shaper that uses a dynamic holographic film in the Fourier plain instead of the conventional static or actively-addressed spatial filters. This can be used as an optically programmable space-to-time converter that can use light to shape light. We use a Hilbert-Gaussian pulse that was optically shaped by the photorefractive quantum wells in the pulse shaper. This pulse-shaper is adaptive, and can dynamically compensate for time-varying dispersion, including arrival-time-drift.