Reference phase-encoded joint transform correlator for eliminating undesired cross-correlations involving multiple targets

A novel technique that employs phase encoding for the reference image and nonlinear Fourier plane apodization for optimizing the detection performance for multiple target detection is proposed. The proposed reference phase-encoded JTC overcomes false target detection by eliminating the false correlation peaks while alleviating the effects of noise and other artifacts in just one-step thus ensuring higher processing speed. Also, this technique yields only one peak per target instead of a pair of peaks produced by alternate JTCs. An all-optical implementation for the reference phase-encoded JTC technique is proposed and computer simulation results are presented.