Aberrated dark-field imaging systems

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for generalized dark-field imaging systems with arbitrary aberrations, providing numerical examples and interpreting the images as a form of dark-field Gabor holography.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive theory for aberrated dark-field systems, extending the understanding of their imaging capabilities and holographic interpretation.

Findings

Theoretical formulation for aberrated dark-field imaging

Numerical examples demonstrating system behavior

Interpretation as dark-field Gabor holography

Abstract

We study generalized dark-field imaging systems. These are a subset of linear shift-invariant optical imaging systems, that exhibit arbitrary aberrations, and for which normally-incident plane-wave input yields zero output. We write down the theory for the forward problem of imaging coherent scalar optical fields using such arbitrarily-aberrated dark-field systems, and give numerical examples. The associated images may be viewed as a form of dark-field Gabor holography, utilizing arbitrary outgoing Green functions as generalized Huygens-type wavelets, and with the Young-type boundary wave forming the holographic reference.