About

Mehmetcan Akbulut is an Associate Research Professor of Optical Sciences at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona. His research focuses on Photonics related Subsystems and Systems development and Applications, including Directed Energy, Remote Sensing & LIDAR, Classical and Quantum Optical Telecommunications & Networking, Optical Computing, Ultrafast & RF Photonics, and Biophotonics. His work encompasses high energy and high peak/average power fiber lasers for directed energy and beam control, multi-kW class fiber lasers, laser beam combining for power and energy scaling, advanced LADAR systems for security applications, and quantum optical networks. Additionally, he is involved in research on classical optical fiber and free space communications, silicon photonics, ultrafast and RF photonics, optical metrology, and biophotonics including novel photonic sensors for cancer detection and hyperspectral imaging with AI for skin cancer detection.

Research topics

• Physics
• Optics
• Materials science
• Optoelectronics

Selected publications

• Active imaging radiometry—not always 1/R ²

  Applied Optics · 2026-03-09

  article

  In this paper, we derive general expressions for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of active imaging systems that employ range-dependent illuminator divergence control and receiver zoom configurations. Many practical systems adjust both parameters with range, causing the received focal-plane power to deviate from the standard 1/ R 2 dependence used in conventional radiometric calculations. We show that, with an appropriate choice of receiver zoom configuration, the SNR becomes independent of range, aside from range-dependent atmospheric transmission. To illustrate these principles, we analyze a laser-range-gated imaging system that implements illuminator divergence control with two receiver zoom configurations: constant-f/# and constant aperture size. We frame the analysis as a radiometric tutorial for both resolved and unresolved targets. Ultimately, we show that the optimal configuration combines range-dependent illuminator divergence control with a constant-f/# zoom configuration. These results inform design considerations and performance requirements for active imaging systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary document for Active imaging radiometry---not always 1/R^2 - 7828373.pdf

  Figshare · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Supplemental Document

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary document for Active imaging radiometry---not always 1/R^2 - 7828373.pdf

  Figshare · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Supplemental Document

  PublisherDOI

• Active imaging radiometry—not always 1/R2

  Figshare · 2026-03-27

  otherOpen access

  In this paper, we derive general expressions for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of active imaging systems that employ range-dependent illuminator divergence control and receiver zoom configurations. Many practical systems adjust both parameters with range, causing the received focal-plane power to deviate from the standard 1/R^2 dependence used in conventional radiometric calculations. We show that, with an appropriate choice of receiver zoom configuration, the SNR becomes independent of range, aside from range-dependent atmospheric transmission. To illustrate these principles, we analyze a laser-range-gated imaging system that implements illuminator divergence control with two receiver zoom configurations: constant f/# and constant aperture size. We frame the analysis as a radiometric tutorial for both resolved and unresolved targets. Ultimately, we show that the optimal configuration combines range-dependent illuminator divergence control with a constant f/# zoom configuration. These results inform design considerations and performance requirements for active imaging systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Active imaging radiometry—not always 1/R2

  Figshare · 2026-03-27

  otherOpen access

  In this paper, we derive general expressions for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of active imaging systems that employ range-dependent illuminator divergence control and receiver zoom configurations. Many practical systems adjust both parameters with range, causing the received focal-plane power to deviate from the standard 1/R^2 dependence used in conventional radiometric calculations. We show that, with an appropriate choice of receiver zoom configuration, the SNR becomes independent of range, aside from range-dependent atmospheric transmission. To illustrate these principles, we analyze a laser-range-gated imaging system that implements illuminator divergence control with two receiver zoom configurations: constant f/# and constant aperture size. We frame the analysis as a radiometric tutorial for both resolved and unresolved targets. Ultimately, we show that the optimal configuration combines range-dependent illuminator divergence control with a constant f/# zoom configuration. These results inform design considerations and performance requirements for active imaging systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary document for Active imaging radiometry---not always 1/R^2 - 7828373.pdf

  Figshare · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Supplemental Document

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary document for Active imaging radiometry---not always 1/R^2 - 7828373.pdf

  Figshare · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Supplemental Document

  PublisherDOI

• Digital-holographic detection with engineered reference beams

  Optical Engineering · 2026-04-25

  articleSenior author

  In this paper, we use computational wave-optics simulations to design and implement engineered reference beams for use with digital-holographic detection, specifically in the off-axis image plane recording geometry. These beams, in practice, match the imaged irradiance of the received signal. As such, the results show that these beams improve the signal-to-noise ratio by up to 9 dB compared with an ideal uniform reference beam. The overall methodology developed in this paper will inform future efforts, which seek to maximize the total system efficiency of laser systems that use digital-holographic detection.

  PublisherDOI

• Coherent Laser Power Scaling for Interferometric Applications

  2025-01-01

  articleSenior author

  We present a novel technique to scale the power of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) limited narrow-linewidth fiber laser systems while maintaining coherent operation for interferometric imaging applications.

  PublisherDOI

• Injection-locked highly Yb³⁺-doped uncoupled-61-core phosphate fiber laser

  Optics Letters · 2022

  • Optics
  • Materials science
  • Optoelectronics

  ions has a diameter of 3 μm and numerical aperture of 0.2. Linearly polarized single-frequency output of 9.1 W was obtained from the injection-locked cavity with a 10-cm-long gain fiber at a pump power of 23.6 W. The injection locking of all 61 cores was confirmed by inspecting the longitudinal modes of the individual lasers with a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer. The performance of the injection-locked 61-core fiber laser was characterized and compared to that of the free-running operation in terms of optical spectrum, near- and far-field intensity profiles, and relative intensity noise.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Peter J. Delfyett

  21 shared

• İbrahim Özdür

  TOBB University of Economics and Technology

  16 shared

• Nazanin Hoghooghi

  13 shared

• Franklyn Quinlan

  National Institute of Standards and Technology

  12 shared

• Dimitrios Mandridis

  12 shared

• Sarper Özharar

  7 shared

• Jie Zong

  Beihang University

  7 shared

• Arturo Chavez-Pirson

  7 shared

Labs

• Photonics and Systems LabPI