Inverse Synthetic Aperture Fourier Ptychography
Optics Express — 2026
Fourier ptychography (FP) overcomes the resolution and field-of-view tradeoff of conventional imaging by combining measurements captured under varying illumination angles, but it has seen limited use in macroscopic applications where illumination cannot be controlled. In this work we introduce inverse synthetic aperture Fourier ptychography (ISA-FP), a novel FP technique that introduces angular diversity via sample tilt rather than illumination. This enables high-resolution, wide-field-of-view imaging in settings such as astronomy, where a target’s orbital motion naturally provides measurement diversity. Because the motion-induced spatial-frequency shifts are generally unknown, we propose kFinder, a neural network that estimates sample tilt from dual-plane intensity measurements and unlocks calibration-free FP. We validate ISA-FP in simulation and with a tabletop optical system, demonstrating super-resolution on par with fully calibrated methods.
@article{chan2026inverse,
title={Inverse synthetic aperture Fourier ptychography},
author={Chan, Matthew A and Pellizzari, Casey J and Metzler, Christopher A},
journal={Optics Express},
volume={34},
number={4},
pages={6498--6512},
year={2026},
publisher={Optica Publishing Group}
}