Diffraction Tomography, Fourier Reconstruction, and Full Waveform Inversion

TL;DR

This paper surveys diffraction tomography, compares low and high contrast reconstructions, and demonstrates that full waveform inversion offers more robust results in complex scattering scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces the application of full waveform inversion to diffraction tomography, improving reconstruction robustness beyond traditional Fourier diffraction methods.

Findings

Full waveform inversion outperforms Fourier diffraction in high contrast objects.

Traditional DT relies on weak scattering assumptions, limiting its applicability.

Full waveform inversion handles multiple scattering more effectively.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the mathematical imaging problem of diffraction tomography (DT), which is an inverse scattering technique used to find material properties of an object by illuminating it with probing waves and recording the scattered waves. Conventional DT relies on the Fourier diffraction theorem, which is applicable under the condition of weak scattering. However, if the object has high contrasts or is too large compared to the wavelength, it tends to produce multiple scattering, which complicates the reconstruction. We give a survey on diffraction tomography and compare the reconstruction of low and high contrast objects. We also implement and compare the reconstruction using the full waveform inversion method which, contrary to the Born and Rytov approximations, works with the total field and is more robust to multiple scattering.