Wavefront coding as an optical–digital hybrid imaging technique can be used to extend the depth of field. The key to wavefront coding lies in the design of suitable phase masks to achieve the invariant imaging properties over a wide range of defocus. In this Letter, we propose another phase mask with a tangent function to enrich the odd symmetrical kind of phase masks. The performance of the tangent phase mask is evaluated by comparison with a cubic mask, improved-1 logarithmic mask, improved-2 logarithmic mask, and sinusoidal mask. The results demonstrate that the tangent phase mask has superior performance in extending the depth of field.

The imaging quality of the aerodynamically heated optical dome was evaluated under the comprehensive influence of aero-optical transmission effect and aero-thermal radiation effect. The ray propagating algorithm based on the fourth order Runge-Kutta method was used to trace the target ray and the thermal radiation ray of the optical dome. Three imaging quality evaluation parameters were proposed to evaluate aero-optical effect: Modulation transfer function (MTF), irradiance, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of distorted images. The results show that: as the flight speed increased, the MTF decreased observably compared with the diffraction-limit MTF, the irradiance on the photosensitive surface of the detector increased gradually, and the distorted imaging quality under the influence of the comprehensive aero-optical effect gradually deteriorated. However, as the thickness of the optical dome increased, the MTF decreased sharply and the irradiance decreased gradually, that indicated the aero-optical transmission effect was reinforced and the aero-thermal radiation effect was weakened. The imaging quality improved with thickness increasing. The influence of aero-thermal radiation effect on the PSNR of the image was more serious than that of the aero-optical transmission effect.

Foveated imaging, such as that evolved by biological systems to provide high angular resolution with a reduced space–bandwidth product, also offers advantages for man-made task-specific imaging. Foveated imaging systems using exclusively optical distortion are complex, bulky, and high cost, however. We demonstrate foveated imaging using a planar array of identical cameras combined with a prism array and superresolution reconstruction of a mosaicked image with a foveal variation in angular resolution of 5.9:1 and a quadrupling of the field of view. The combination of low-cost, mass-produced cameras and optics with computational image recovery offers enhanced capability of achieving large foveal ratios from compact, low-cost imaging systems.

Optical speckle fields with both non-Rayleigh statistics and nondiffracting characteristics in propagation are an important light source for many applications. However, tailoring either non-Rayleigh statistical speckles or nondiffracting speckles are only investigated independently in previous studies. Here, we report the first observation of optical speckles that remain diffraction-free over a long axial distance while keeping non-Rayleigh statistics simultaneously. We further show the enhancement of Anderson localization of light with the non-Rayleigh nondiffracting speckles. The work presented here provides a versatile framework for customizing optical fields with desired speckle patterns for applications in the fields of solid-state physics, cold atoms, and optical imaging.

We use a wavefront coding approach to control thermal defocus aberration in an IR imaging system. The design method of athermalized system using a wavefront coding technique is discussed. An athermalized long wave IR optical system, which works at temperatures ranging from $-40°\mathrm{C}$ to $60°\mathrm{C}$, is designed by employing a cubic phase mask. Computer simulations and the first experimental demonstration are executed to verify the performance of this wavefront coded athermalized system and to clarify the issues related to its implementation.

Wavefront coding involves the use of an asymmetrical phase mask to extend the depth of field of incoherent imaging systems. The performance of wavefront coding systems depends on designing a suitable phase profile to generate the defocus-invariant imaging characteristic. We proposed a square-root phase mask with two profile factors for achieving a steadier defocused modulation transfer function (MTF). Several evaluation methods are employed for the purpose of performance comparison between the proposed phase mask and the previously suggested phase masks under the constraint condition that the phase parameters are optimized at the same level of noise gain. Numerical results show that the square-root phase mask yields better properties in extended depth of field imaging, especially in acquiring defocus-invariant MTFs and eliminating image artifacts associated with the decoded images.