Disclosed herein are a multifunctional optical element and method using multiple light scattering. An optical control method using multiple light scattering may include the steps of splitting coherent light into a signal beam and a reference beam, controlling the wavefront of the signal beam, forming an interference pattern by making the signal beam having the controlled wavefront and the reference beam incident on photorefractive materials, recording the interference pattern on the photorefractive materials, reconstructing the signal beam having the controlled wavefront by the interference pattern by radiating the reference beam to the photorefractive materials on which the interference pattern has been recorded again, and controlling the properties of light passing through complex media based on multiple light scattering generated by the complex media as the reconstructed signal beam is incident on the complex media.

A nonlinear optical dye includes a compound represented by the general formula (1) below. ##STR00001## In the above general formula (1), each of X.sup.1, X.sup.2, X.sup.3 and X.sup.4 independently represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having a carbon number of 1 to 6, a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a nitro group, a cyano group, or a methylsulfonyl group. In the present invention, it is preferred that each of X.sup.1, X.sup.2, X.sup.3 and X.sup.4 independently represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having a carbon number of 1 to 6, or a halogen atom. In the present invention, it is also preferred that the nonlinear optical dye has a dipole moment of 2.1 D or less and a maximum absorption wavelength within a range of 315 to 360 nm.

A photorefractive (PR) polymer composite (310) is provided that includes a charge transporting polymer (CTP) matrix (311) and a photosensitizer (312) comprising a quantum dot (QD) material (314) with a first band gap (315) coupled to a nanoparticle material (317) with a second band gap (316) greater than the first band gap. The photosensitizer (312) is configured to generate a plurality of free charges (318) and to transfer the free charges to the CTP matrix (311) in response to an incident photon (320) on the PR polymer composite (310). An apparatus (500) is also provided, for writing holograms of 3D perspective views of an object from different directions within the PR polymer composite (310). A method (600) is also provided for forming the PR polymer composite.