Scattering-robust Imaging of Azimuthal Features with Enhanced Resolution
Abstract
Imaging through scattering media remains a long-standing challenge in numerous real-world applications, ranging from medical imaging to long-distance sensing. Recently, illumination consisting of a single orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode, which is structured in the azimuthal coordinate, has been shown to provide enhanced resolution for imaging objects with azimuthal features, with the resolution becoming maximum at an optimal OAM value. However, in the presence of scattering, single-mode fields, which are spatially fully coherent, cause the imaging resolution to decrease significantly due to speckle formation. In this work, we employ azimuthally partially coherent fields and experimentally demonstrate imaging of azimuthal features with enhanced resolution in the presence of scattering. We show that lower degree of azimuthal coherence in such illumination leads to increased robustness against scattering while the azimuthal structure of the illumination ensures enhanced resolution. We derive the condition for best imaging resolution, and we report increase of imaging contrast in scattering from about 7% to 50% as the illumination is changed from a single-mode fully coherent field to that of an azimuthal partially coherent field.
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BibTeX
@misc{senapati2026scatteringrobust,
title = {{Scattering-robust Imaging of Azimuthal Features with Enhanced Resolution}},
author = {Nilakshi Senapati and Abhinandan Bhattacharjee and Anand K Jha},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.11113},
eprint = {2609.11113},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11113},
note = {CC BY-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Scattering-robust Imaging of Azimuthal Features with Enhanced Resolution
AU - Nilakshi Senapati
AU - Abhinandan Bhattacharjee
AU - Anand K Jha
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/10
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.11113
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11113
AB - Imaging through scattering media remains a long-standing challenge in numerous real-world applications, ranging from medical imaging to long-distance sensing. Recently, illumination consisting of a single orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode, which is structured in the azimuthal coordinate, has been shown to provide enhanced resolution for imaging objects with azimuthal features, with the resolution becoming maximum at an optimal OAM value. However, in the presence of scattering, single-mode fields, which are spatially fully coherent, cause the imaging resolution to decrease significantly due to speckle formation. In this work, we employ azimuthally partially coherent fields and experimentally demonstrate imaging of azimuthal features with enhanced resolution in the presence of scattering. We show that lower degree of azimuthal coherence in such illumination leads to increased robustness against scattering while the azimuthal structure of the illumination ensures enhanced resolution. We derive the condition for best imaging resolution, and we report increase of imaging contrast in scattering from about 7% to 50% as the illumination is changed from a single-mode fully coherent field to that of an azimuthal partially coherent field.
ER -