Synthetic Discriminant Function-Based Nonlinear Optical Correlator

We describe a binary joint transform correlator (JTC) that uses a synthetic discriminant function (SDF) at the input plane to store the reference images. The SDF is displayed at the input plane side by side the input scene. The input scene, the SDF, and their joint power spectrum are thresholded to only two values. Thus, binary spatial light modulators (SLMs) can be used to implement the correlator. The correlation performance of the SDF-based binary JTC is compared to that of the classical SDF-based correlator in the areas of correlation peak intensity, peak to sidelobe ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, and correlation width. We show that the SDF-based binary JTC outperforms the classical correlator in all these areas. Furthermore, a single binary SLM can be used to read in sequentially the binarized input signals and the binarized joint power spectrum which results in a significant reduction in cost, size, and complexity of the system.