<title>Synthetic aperture microscope: experimental results</title>

Abstract

Recently, the theory of the synthetic aperture microscope (SAM) was presented. A SAM is a three dimensional imaging system that makes use of the principles of synthetic aperture radar to obtain a high resolution, complex valued image at a large working distance. Theoretically, a SAM can achieve resolution of approximately (lambda) /4 in all three dimensions. A typical system consists of a holographic sensor head and a reconstruction processor. This implementation will use the Essex ImSyn<SUP>TM</SUP> optoelectronic discrete Fourier transform (DFT) processor to reconstruct the synthetic aperture image. Over the past year Essex has constructed a breadboard of the system and obtained initial results consisting of a single digital hologram and its computer-reconstructed image. The ability to collect complex valued image data opens the door to image processing and pattern recognition algorithms that are not applicable to intensity images, such as holographic interferometry for mapping strain fields. Applications include industrial inspection, robotics, and biological imaging.