Wavefront shaping using improved sparrow search algorithm to control the scattering light field

•An improved sparrow search algorithm (ISSA) is proposed to control the light field passing through the scattering medium.•ISSA significantly improves the wavefront shaping performance of focusing and imaging in turbid media compared with the basic sparrow search algorithm (SSA).•ISSA provides a new way for wavefront shaping in biomedical imaging.