Improving coherent field imaging quality by suppressing the influence of transmitting aperture spacing error

Abstract

Coherent field imaging is based on the assumption of equal transmitting apertures spacing and equal spectrum of laser, and high-resolution image is reconstructed by iteratively computing the frequency spectrum. However, the inevitable transmitting aperture spacing error of laser is a key factor to affect the coherent field imaging quality in the application. Aiming at the problem of degrading imaging quality caused by the transmitting aperture spacing error, we discuss the mechanism of influence of aperture spacing error on imaging quality and propose a novel method of improving imaging quality from the perspective of suppressing the influence of transmitting aperture spacing error. Firstly, the mechanism of the influence of aperture spacing error on imaging quality and laser echo spectrum is analyzed in detail. Then we derive a frequency spectrum error propagation model. Based on the model, the iterative effect of frequency spectrum error is investigated and the trend of variation in imaging quality with frequency spectrum error is given. We propose a theoretical equation, in which the transmitting aperture spacing error has no influence on frequency spectrum nor imaging quality. To solve the above equation, an optimized method of linear programming is proposed and the optimized matrix of aperture spacing error is obtained. In practice, the influence of aperture spacing error on imaging quality can be largely counteracted by reasonably allocating aperture spacing error according to the optimized spacing error matrix. The correctness and validity of the theoretical model are verified by a simulation experiment. The results show that the Strehl ratio of imaging quality index can be improved by about 100% through using the proposed method, the greater the aperture spacing error, the higher the Strehl ratio of imaging quality index obtained by the method will be. In addition, the method is easy to use practically and less costly as well. Finally, it is concluded that the proposed method can easily and effectively counteract the degrading effect of aperture spacing error on imaging quality. The research can provide a theoretical basis for improving imaging quality and reasonably assigning transmitter aperture spacing accuracy of coherent field imaging telescope.