Sensitivity of synthetic aperture laser optical feedback imaging

Wilfried Glastre (1) , Eric Lacot (1) , Olivier Jacquin (1) , Olivier Hugon (1) , Hugues Guillet de Chatellus (2)

1 OPTIMA-LIPhy - OPTique et IMAgeries [Grenoble]
2 LIPhy - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique [Saint Martin d’Hères]

In this paper we compare the sensitivity of two imaging configurations both based on Laser Optical Feedback Imaging (LOFI). The first one is direct imaging, which uses conventional optical focalisation on target and the second one is made by Synthetic Aperture (SA) Laser, which uses numerical focalisation. We show that SA configuration allows to obtain good resolutions with high working distance and that the drawback of SA imagery is that it has a worse photometric balance in comparison to conventional microscope. This drawback is partially compensated by the important sensitivity of LOFI. Another interest of SA relies on the capacity of getting a 3D information in a single x-y scan.

Mots clés: Fourier optics and signal processing; Holography; Imaging systems; Microscopy

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Wilfried Glastre, Eric Lacot, Olivier Jacquin, Olivier Hugon, Hugues Guillet de Chatellus. Sensitivity of synthetic aperture laser optical feedback imaging. Journal of the Optical Society of America. A Optics, Image Science, and Vision, 2012, 29 (4), pp.476-485. ⟨hal-00660306v2⟩