Atmospheric Turbulence-Resilient Long-Range Fourier Ptychography

Abstract

While Fourier ptychography (FP) offers super-resolution for macroscopic imaging, its real-world application is severely hampered by atmospheric turbulence, a challenge largely unaddressed in existing macroscopic FP research operating under idealized conditions. This work establishes, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive computational framework specifically designed for turbulence mitigation in long-range FP, termed Turbulence-Mitigated FP (TMFP). Rather than correcting pupil errors, an image degradation model is developed alongside a reconstruction pipeline inspired by speckle interferometry. By taking multiple short-exposure randomly-distorted measurements and exploiting their statistical properties, the diffraction-limited sub-aperture images can be recovered for further FP reconstruction. Numerical simulations and experimental validations under optical turbulence demonstrate the method's robustness, resolution enhancement, and practicality in adverse conditions, paving the way for the reliable deployment of high-resolution macroscopic FP in real-world scenarios.