Abstract
WE demonstrate that light scattered from a disordered medium or a roughened surface will form an image of the light source without the use of any focusing optics. The image is superimposed on a relatively uniform background of scattered light, which we are able to remove by suitably processing the output from a CCD (charge-coupled device) detector. Images of several sources have been obtained, using both laser and incandescent light sources. We interpret the imaging as being caused by coherent back-scattering, a phenomenon which has been invoked to explain a well-known intensity maximum in the far-field back-scattered light from a random medium1–9. Our work amplifies and explains an earlier report10 of 'pseudo-imaging' of a point source by 'retro-reflection'.
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Rochon, P., Bissonnette, D. Lensless imaging due to back-scattering. Nature 348, 708–710 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/348708a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/348708a0
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