Implementation of a photorefractive binary joint transform correlator

The use of photorefractive materials such as Bi12SiO20 as dynamic holographic media is becoming an interesting alternative to that of the current liquid-crystal-based modulators in real-time optical image processing. We present an experimental realization of optical correlation for pattern recognition by means of a photorefractive joint transform correlator. The correlator operates with a liquid-crystal television as the input and a photorefractive crystal at the recording plane. We consider two possible ways of registering the Fourier plane information: conventional detection of the joint power spectrum, and utilization of only phase information at the Fourier plane by suitable preprocessing of the scene and the reference at the object plane. We compare the latter case with the performance of a binary joint transform correlator. Analysis, simulations, and experimental results are presented.