Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-6-2023
Abstract
We provide an in-depth analysis of noise considerations in coherent imaging, accounting for speckle and scintillation in addition to “conventional” image noise. Specifically, we formulate closed-form expressions for total effective noise in the presence of speckle only, scintillation only, and speckle combined with scintillation. We find analytically that photon shot noise is uncorrelated with both speckle and weak-to-moderate scintillation, despite their shared dependence on the mean signal. Furthermore, unmitigated speckle and scintillation noise tends to dominate coherent-imaging performance due to a squared mean-signal dependence. Strong coupling occurs between speckle and scintillation when both are present, and we characterize this behavior by fitting a scale factor capable of generating variances in closed form. We verify each of these claims through a series of wave-optics simulations, and we see strong agreement in general between numerical results and theoretical predictions. Our findings allow us to confidently gauge signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) expectations when active illumination produces coherent noise.
Source Publication
Optics Express
Recommended Citation
Derek J. Burrell, Joshua H. Follansbee, Mark F. Spencer, and Ronald G. Driggers, "System-level noise performance of coherent imaging systems," Opt. Express 31, 38625-38639 (2023).
Comments
© 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement. Authors and readers may use, reuse, and build upon the article, or use it for text or data mining without asking prior permission from the publisher or the Author(s), as long as the purpose is non-commercial and appropriate attribution is maintained. All other rights are reserved.