IMAGING THROUGH A RANDOM-PHASE SCREEN BY ENHANCED BACKSCATTER - A PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION

It has been shown recently that enhanced backscatter processes can be exploited in imaging diffuser-obscured objects. Through the use of an interferometric measurement system it is possible to determine the mod ulus of the Fresnel transform of a planar reflective object that is ob scured by a thin moving diffuser. In a physical interpretation of that operation presented in this paper, we think of the object as being ma de up of a superposition of lens-like components, each with focal powe r appropriate to image the diffuser back onto itself and each with an associated attenuation and phase shift. This interpretation leads to t he conclusion, which is verified analytically, that the same informati on about the object can be obtained without making interferometric mea surements, i.e., without exploiting enhanced backscatter.