Review on athermalized infrared imaging technology based on wavefront coding (Invited)

As a novel computational optical imaging technology, wavefront coding infrared imaging technology includes two stages of optical coding and digital decoding. The wavefront coding athermalized infrared imaging system is realized by mounting a special-form phase mask near the stop of an infrared optical system to modulate the incident radiation. Its infrared detector produces intermediate coded images. Those intermediate coded images have high similarity over a wide range of ambient temperature. An intermediate coded image is decoded to produce a decoded image with sharpness. In recent years, researchers have made much contribution to its theory and experiment to prove its validity for athermalization. In this paper, combining their previous related works, the authors have respectively introduced research background, basic principle, key technique, typical design scheme and experimental prototype, and prospected its application and development trend in future.