Second-Harmonic Imaging in Random Media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robust second-harmonic imaging method in random media, extending coherent interferometric imaging (CINT) to nonlinear scatterers and demonstrating improved stability over traditional migration imaging through analysis and simulations.

Contribution

It extends CINT to second-harmonic imaging and shows it outperforms nonlinear migration imaging in robustness to media fluctuations.

Findings

CINT-based second-harmonic imaging is more robust to statistical fluctuations.

Resolution analysis supports the robustness of the proposed method.

Numerical simulations confirm effectiveness beyond geometrical optics assumptions.

Abstract

We consider the problem of optical imaging of small nonlinear scatterers in random media. We propose an extension of coherent interferometric imaging (CINT) that applies to scatterers that emit second-harmonic light. We compare this method to a nonlinear version of migration imaging and find that the images obtained by CINT are more robust to statistical fluctuations. This finding is supported by a resolution analysis that is carried out in the setting of geometrical optics in random media. It is also consistent with numerical simulations for which the assumptions of the geometrical optics model do not hold.