Fundamental limits of target detection performance in passive polarization imaging

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Image Processing
• Remote Sensing

Background:

• Passive polarization imaging architectures are crucial for target detection.
• Performance is affected by signal-independent detection noise and signal-dependent Poisson shot noise.
• Understanding the gain from polarization imaging over standard intensity imaging is vital.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively assess target detection performance across different passive polarization imaging architectures.
• To compare fully adaptive and static polarimetric imagers with varying polarization analyzing devices.
• To derive closed-form expressions for target/background separability and quantify performance gains.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative analysis of target detection performance under different noise conditions.
• Comparison of fully adaptive vs. static polarimetric imagers.
• Evaluation of polarizers and polarizing beam splitters as polarization analyzers.
• Derivation of closed-form expressions for target/background separability.

Main Results:

• All configurations, except one, require minimum polarimetric contrast to surpass intensity imaging.
• Polarization imaging offers performance gains over standard intensity imaging.
• A polarizing beam splitter configuration consistently outperforms intensity imaging under background shot noise.

Conclusions:

• The choice of polarimetric imaging architecture significantly impacts target detection performance.
• Polarizing beam splitters show robust performance, particularly in noisy conditions.
• Results guide the selection of optimal imaging systems for specific applications.