Experimental ghost imaging in atmospheric turbulence

Classical ghost imaging uses random or structured light distributions to create a two-dimensional object image with only single-pixel intensity measurements of light reflected or transmitted by the object. The single-pixel intensity measurements serve as weighting coefficients to the light distributions, which in turn serve as basis functions to the final correlated image. Performing this measurement many times with different light distributions increases the structural similarity index measure of the ghost image. The number of measurements required to faithfully reproduce an image of the object is determined by the total number of pixels in the imager. If classical ghost imaging can be successfully demonstrated experimentally in an optically turbulent medium, it could provide a revolutionary technique for imaging in low-light environments. This research experimentally demonstrates the effectiveness of classical ghost imaging using both random and structured light distributions subject to various levels of simulated atmospheric turbulence generated by a spatial light modulator. The objective is to determine if classical ghost imaging is a feasible technique for long-distance free space imaging, and if so, under what conditions should the imager use random vice structured light distributions. These results are compared with existing numerical simulations to validate models for future classical ghost imaging research.