Reconstruction of optical parameter fields in graded refractive index media based on laser beam deflection and attenuation measurement

Abstract

Graded refractive index media (GRIM) are widely applied as special functional materials in many practical engineering fields. Accurate knowledge of the optical parameters is key to using GRIM. In this study, simultaneous reconstruction of the refractive index and absorption coefficient fields of GRIM based on laser beam deflection and attenuation measurement is studied. A set of rays from the given positions along the given directions transits GRIM, and the deflection and attenuation of rays at the exit boundary are recorded as measurement information. A two-step reconstruction strategy is proposed to reconstruct the refractive index and absorption coefficient fields. First, the refractive index field is reconstructed from the ray deflection measurement information. Then, the ray trajectory can be obtained by the Runge–Kutta ray tracing technique based on the reconstructed refractive index field. Afterwards, the absorption coefficient field is reconstructed from the ray attenuation measurement according to the Bouguer law. The regularization technique based on the generalized Gaussian Markov random field model is employed to improve the reconstruction results. All test results show that the two-step reconstruction strategy is accurate and can be regarded as a promising reconstruction technique.