A projection-based approach to diffraction tomography on curved boundaries.

An approach to diffraction tomography is investigated for two-dimensional image reconstruction of objects surrounded by an arbitrarily-shaped curve of sources and receivers. Based on the integral theorem of Helmholtz and Kirchhoff, the approach relies upon a valid choice of the Green's functions for selected conditions along the (possibly-irregular) boundary. This allows field projections from the receivers to an arbitrary external location. When performed over all source locations, it will be shown that the field caused by a hypothetical source at this external location is also known along the boundary. This field can then be projected to new external points that may serve as a virtual receiver. Under such a reformation, data may be put in a form suitable for image construction by synthetic aperture methods. Foundations of the approach are shown, followed by a mapping technique optimized for the approach. Examples formed from synthetic data are provided.