Optimization of the contrast in polarimetric scalar images

François Goudail (1) , Arnaud Bénière (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Scop

We consider active polarimetric imaging systems that illuminate a scene with an incident polarization state and project the backscattered light on another polarization state in order to produce a scalar intensity image. We present and analyze a method for determining the configuration of illumination and analysis polarization states that maximizes the observed contrast between a target and the background when the scene is partially depolarizing and in the presence of additive Gaussian detection noise.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

François Goudail, Arnaud Bénière. Optimization of the contrast in polarimetric scalar images. Optics Letters, 2009, 34 (9), pp.1471-1473. ⟨hal-00746930⟩