Structural Resilience of Space-Time Wave Packets to Volumetric Scattering
Abstract
Optical space-time wave packets (STWPs) can be engineered to sustain tight transverse confinement over long distances. However, whether the requisite precise spatiotemporal correlations underlying this behavior survive volumetric scattering remains unclear. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that STWP light sheets with transverse thicknesses of 11 and 22 microns largely retain their prescribed spatiotemporal structure after transmission through 10 mm thick scattering phantoms (scattering coefficient = 0.84 per mm). Moreover, compared with size-matched Gaussian beams, STWPs exhibit greater preservation of their initial spectral intensity distribution across the prescribed space-time domain following scattering. Additionally, the transmitted STWPs remain tightly confined and preserve on-axis intensity decay rates similar to those of their unscattered counterparts. As the scattering conditions span biologically relevant regimes, the structural and propagation resilience of STWPs to scattering highlights their potential for extended-depth 3D biomedical microscopy.
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BibTeX
@misc{mu2026structural,
title = {{Structural Resilience of Space-Time Wave Packets to Volumetric Scattering}},
author = {Kefu Mu and Hsiao-Chih Huang and Chen-Ting Liao and Hui Min Leung},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.26969},
eprint = {2609.26969},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26969},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Structural Resilience of Space-Time Wave Packets to Volumetric Scattering
AU - Kefu Mu
AU - Hsiao-Chih Huang
AU - Chen-Ting Liao
AU - Hui Min Leung
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.26969
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26969
AB - Optical space-time wave packets (STWPs) can be engineered to sustain tight transverse confinement over long distances. However, whether the requisite precise spatiotemporal correlations underlying this behavior survive volumetric scattering remains unclear. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that STWP light sheets with transverse thicknesses of 11 and 22 microns largely retain their prescribed spatiotemporal structure after transmission through 10 mm thick scattering phantoms (scattering coefficient = 0.84 per mm). Moreover, compared with size-matched Gaussian beams, STWPs exhibit greater preservation of their initial spectral intensity distribution across the prescribed space-time domain following scattering. Additionally, the transmitted STWPs remain tightly confined and preserve on-axis intensity decay rates similar to those of their unscattered counterparts. As the scattering conditions span biologically relevant regimes, the structural and propagation resilience of STWPs to scattering highlights their potential for extended-depth 3D biomedical microscopy.
ER -