Constructing probing functions for direct sampling methods for inverse scattering problems with limited-aperture data: finite space framework and deep probing network

Abstract: This work studies an inverse scattering problem when limited-aperture data are available that are from just one or a few incident fields. This inverse problem is highly ill-posed due to the limited receivers and a few incident fields employed. Solving inverse scattering problems with limited-aperture data is important in applications as collecting full data is often either unrealistic or too expensive. The direct sampling methods (DSMs) with full-aperture data can effectively and stably estimate the locations and geometric shapes of the unknown scatterers with a very limited number of incident waves. However, a direct application of DSMs to the case of limited receivers would face the resolution limit. To break this limitation, we propose a finite space framework with two specific schemes, and an unsupervised deep learning strategy to construct effective probing functions for the DSMs in the case with limited-aperture data. Several representative numerical experiments are carried out to illustrate and compare the performance of different proposed schemes.