Comparison of vander lugt and joint transform correlators

A generalized optical correlator is used to analyze the performances of the Vander Lugt and the joint transform architectures. Noise performance and the effects caused by the differences between the input and the reference functions are analyzed. It is found that the modulation index of the joint transform filter decreases due to the presence of noise as well as the differences between the input and the reference functions. However, it is found that, in general, the joint transform correlator would perform better than the Vander Lugt correlator and certainly has the advantage for real-time implementation.