The ping pong experiment of Pritam Pai

Pritam Pai is a PhD student in nanophotonics and nicknamed his experiment Ping Pong. 

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Pritam Pai and I’m a new PhD student in the recently formed research group headed by Prof. Allard Mosk and Dr. Sanli Faez. Our group is called 'Physics of Light in Complex Systems', also commonly referred to as NanoLINX. We are part of the Nanophotonics section in the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science. 

Using state of the art experimental methods, I work on trying to understand and control the information carried by light that is totally scrambled by a randomly scattering material.

Where is this workplace?
As a nanophotonics physics group, we typically perform experiments in a dark optical environment. This photo is taken in our lab at the setup I’m currently working on. It is located in the Ornstein Laboratory building situated in Utrecht Science Park (De Uithof).

What is special about this workplace or about your research?
Our group leader Prof. Allard Mosk is one of the pioneers in the field of 'wavefront shaping'. One of the most impressive experimental results demonstrated by this ingenious technique is imaging through opaque materials, such as white paint, paper and biological tissue. Building on these impactful feats, my research focuses on trying to maximize the intensity of light exiting such scattering materials. The experiment is nicknamed 'Ping Pong' since light is essentially sent and back forth repeatedly, with suitable adjustments being made to the light wave after every cycle until the transmission signal is completely optimized.