Interferometric Imaging Techniques in Photonic Systems

Interferometric imaging in photonic systems exploits the principle of superposing coherent light waves to extract spatial information beyond the limits of conventional optics. By integrating multiple waveguide channels and beam combiners on a single photonic chip, these systems form an array of baselines whose interference patterns encode high-resolution details of a target. Measurements of complex fringe visibility across varied spectral bands enable reconstruction of both amplitude and phase profiles, yielding two- and three-dimensional images with sub-wavelength precision. Such compact architectures harness advances in photonic integrated circuits, on-chip spectrometers and bespoke reconstruction algorithms, offering robust platforms for astronomical instrumentation, remote sensing and biomedical diagnostics. The integration of computational techniques—ranging from compressed sensing to machine-learning-assisted inversion—addresses challenges of sparse sampling, noise and calibration, while guiding the design of novel lens arrays and waveguide topologies to optimise spatial-frequency coverage. This melding of photonic engineering and interferometric methodology paves the way for portable, low-mass imaging instruments capable of unprecedented resolution in harsh or constrained environments.

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Interferometric Imaging Techniques in Photonic Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in interferometric imaging techniques in photonic systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Photonic integrated circuit (PIC): A microfabricated optical chip that integrates waveguides, beam splitters and interferometers to manipulate light on a compact footprint.

Complex coherence factor: A quantity expressing both the amplitude and phase correlation between two optical fields, fundamental to image reconstruction from interferometric fringes.

Baseline: The vector separation between two apertures or waveguide channels, determining the spatial-frequency sample in the Fourier domain.

Fringe visibility: The contrast of the interference pattern, directly related to the degree of coherence and object contrast.

Compressed sensing: A computational strategy that reconstructs high-resolution images from undersampled data by exploiting sparsity in a suitable transform domain.

References

1. Passive 3D Imaging Method Based on Photonics Integrated Interference Computational Imaging System. Remote Sensing (2023).
2. Deep learning-based image reconstruction for photonic integrated interferometric imaging.. Optics Express (2022).
3. Imaging quality characterization and optimization of segmented planar imaging system based on honeycomb dense azimuth sampling lens array.. Optics Express (2023).