Exploiting disorder for perfect focusing

Optical microscopy and manipulation methods rely on the ability to focus light to a small volume. However, in inhomogeneous media such as biological tissue, light is scattered out of the focusing beam. Disordered scattering is thought to fundamentally limit the resolution and penetration depth of optical methods^1–3. Here we demonstrate, in an optical experiment, that scattering can be used to improve, rather than deteriorate, the sharpness of the focus. The resulting focus is even sharper than that in a transparent medium. By using scattering in the medium behind a lens, light was focused to a spot ten times smaller than the diffraction limit of that lens. Our method is the optical equivalent of highly successful methods for improving the resolution and communication bandwidth of ultrasound, radio waves and microwaves^4-6. Our results, obtained using spatial wavefront shaping, apply to all coherent methods for focusing through scattering matter, including phase conjugation⁷ and time-reversal⁴.