Diffraction effects in laser computed tomography and time-resolved imaging in random media

In this paper we discuss diffraction effects on laser computed tomography (LCT) and time-resolved imaging (TRI) in a random medium. Our basic point is that light diffracted by an object embedded in a random medium contains useful and important information about its structure and therefore should be included in the imaging process. To support this point of view, we compute diffracted fields from opaque and semi-transparent cylindrical objects of various sizes. Based on these results we conclude that to improve imaging in random media, diffraction effects should be taken into account, even for cases in which the size of the observed object is much larger than the optical wavelength.