Unified theory of thermal ghost imaging and ghost diffraction through turbulent atmosphere

摘要

A unified theory is developed to investigate both thermal ghost imaging and ghost diffraction through turbulent atmosphere. A very simple analytical imaging formula is derived and contains several previously known results as particular cases. Numerical examples are given to show the effects of the turbulence strength, source parameters, and detector size on the quality of ghost imaging and ghost diffraction. Specifically, we find ghost imaging is more robust against the turbulence than ghost diffraction. A comparison of ghost imaging with a conventional lens imaging system is given to show the advantages or disadvantages of ghost imaging through turbulent atmosphere.