Joint Fresnel transform correlator based on double optical wedges

Abstract We have designed a joint Fresnel transform correlator based on double optical wedges and validate the properties of the designed correlator by simulation and experiment. The results show that the output correlation peak of the proposed correlator is sharper than that of conventional joint transform correlator. Meanwhile, the space-variant properties similar with joint fractional Fourier transform correlators have been retained. However, our correlator has simpler optical configuration and is easier to be implemented with common optical elements with high phase precision relative to space light modulation coding. Therefore, it is a practical space-variant joint Fresnel transform correlator.