Optical through-turbulence imaging configuration: experimental validation

In this Letter the authors present a field experimental validation of an imaging system that, when combined with a special image-processing algorithm, allows obtaining an improved imaging quality through turbulence perturbation. The system includes simultaneous capturing of three differently focused images and performing an iterative Gerchberg-Saxton based processing for phase retrieval. After the phase is retrieved the intensity of the object is reconstructed by numerical free-space propagation of the extracted complex field to the estimated position of the object. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America