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Electronic Holography For Imaging Through Tissue Using Femtosecond Gated Pulses

E. Leith, E. Arons, H. Chen, Y. Chen, D. Dilworth, J. Lopez, R. Masri, J. Rudd and J. Valdmanis

Imaging through and into highly scattering media is a major problem of optics. One potential application is for medical imaging—to see through biological tissue. One imaging method uses short pulses (picosecond or subpicosecond) and the principle of the first arriving light. Here, a short pulse of light enters the medium and emerges as a greatly elongated pulse. The light that is scattered least emerges first, and the more scattered light emerges later. The least scattered light, being distorted the least, will form the best image of any absorbers located behind or embedded within the material. Gating methods are then used to separate this first arriving light from the rest.