2-DIMENSIONAL COHERENT DETECTION IMAGING IN MULTIPLE-SCATTERING MEDIA BASED ON THE DIRECTIONAL RESOLUTION CAPABILITY OF THE OPTICAL HETERODYNE METHOD

This paper describes a new application of optical heterodyne detection using a laser beam for two-dimensional imaging of the internal structure of strongly scattering media in which the structure is completely obstructed from normal visual observation. The directional resolution capability for image formation due to the excellent antenna properties of the heterodyne technique is verified experimentally using a ground glass to cause strong scattering of the signal beam. Successful image detection of a test target placed in a highly scattering absorptive medium, with spatial resolution better than 400-mu-m in the case of our experiments, demonstrates that this Coherent Detection Imaging (CDI) method can overcome the diffuse nature of images in media such as those of biomedical interest and others to achieve scanning and tomographic imaging.