Speckle Intensity Correlation Distribution Analysis Based on Coincidence Detection for Scattering Medium Characterization

Abstract

Characterizing a scattering medium is essential for understanding and controlling light propagation, enabling accurate imaging, correlation analysis, and material diagnostics in scientific applications. In this study, the scattering medium has been characterized by examining the spatial distribution of the second-order temporal correlation function of varying speckle patterns obtained under faint-light conditions using a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. In the proposed method, the exposure time has been utilized as a self-coincidence circuit of the CCD. The spatial statistics of second-order temporal autocorrelation values have been analyzed through power spectral density and radial spatial autocorrelation function. The scattering degree of the medium has been determined using our proposed autocorrelation-based metric. The results from three different media have shown that the method is effective and holds potential for applications such as characterization through speckle imaging.