Abstract

We investigate the way errors arise in coherent imaging systems and how such errors fundamentally limit the quality of the images formed. To reflect the best possible imaging performance with a photon-counting detector, we use a continuous-detection model to describe the operation of a focal-plane imaging sensor in a coherent optical-imaging configuration. By means of this detection model and the statistical properties of imaged laserspeckle patterns, we compute the signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) of the complex Fourier amplitudes of the coherent images formed under single- and multiple-exposure modes of operation. We explore physical insights provided by this SNR expression (as well as certain system design tradeoffs implied by it) and illustrate key points with the help of computer-simulated coherent imagery.

© 1990 Optical Society of America