Improved integration time estimates for intensity correlation imaging

Abstract

Despite the simplicity of flux collecting hardware, robustness to misalignments, and immunity to seeing conditions, intensity correlation imaging arrays using the Brown–Twiss effect to determine two-dimensional images have been burdened with very long integration times. The root cause is that the essential phase retrieval algorithms must use image domain constraints, and traditional signal-to-noise calculations do not account for these. Thus, conventional formulations are not efficient estimators. This work incorporates image domain constraints in a noise reducing phase retrieval algorithm to estimate integration times that are orders of magnitude smaller than those produced by conventional calculations.