Polarimetric target detection in the presence of spatially fluctuating Mueller matrices

Guillaume Anna (1) , François Goudail (1) , Daniel Dolfi (2)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Scop
2 Thales Research and Technology [Palaiseau]

In polarimetric imaging systems, the main source of perturbations may not be detection noise but fluctuations of the Mueller matrices in the scene. In this case, we propose a method for determining the illumination and analysis polarization states that allow reaching the highest target detection performance. We show with simulations and real-world images that, in practical applications, the statistics of Mueller matrix fluctuations have to be taken into account to optimize polarimetric imagery.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Guillaume Anna, François Goudail, Daniel Dolfi. Polarimetric target detection in the presence of spatially fluctuating Mueller matrices. Optics Letters, 2011, 36 (23), pp.4590-4592. ⟨hal-00747158⟩