Perfecting the Schnitzel-Laser

Moti Fridman alerted us to the existence of the schnitzel-laser. Fridman wrote: ”They showed how a laser can find by itself the correct phase to lase at in order to go through a thin chicken breast with no aberrations, when it is put inside the cavity. In a talk they called it the schnitzel-laser. This research shows beautifully the principle of operation of lasers to many people outside of the laser community.” The researchers published a study about it:

“Real-time wavefront-shaping through scattering media by all optical feedback,” Micha Nixon, Ori Katz, Eran Small, Yaron Bromberg, Asher A. Friesem, Yaron Silberberg, and Nir Davidson [pictured here], arXiv preprint arXiv:1303.3161 (2013).  The authors report:

“we applied our technique to focus light through a thin scattering biological sample. Specifically, we replaced the diffuser with a slice of approximately 200μm thick chicken breast in water and Glycerol solution, placed between two microscopes slides. As with the optical diffuser, the light of an incident focused plane-wave was scattered to a random speckle pattern without a noticeable ballistic component (Fig .4a). However, the lasing intensity pattern maintained an effective tight focus through the scattering tissue on the target (Fig. 4b)…. We have demonstrated an all-optical technique for wavefront-shaping, focusing light through highly scattering media at unprecedented speeds, without requiring the use of adaptive algorithms, SLMs, or electronic feedback.”

BONUS: Video of a fellow named Nicko demonstrating how he makes chicken schnitzel. His method includes the playing of annoying music:

BONUS: A recipe for Chicken Schnitzel with Zigeuner Sauce