Experimental verification of 2D sparse electromagnetic imaging

Because of the high contrast, electromagnetic imaging of metallic targets hidden inside dielectric domains is challenging. We develop a two-step algorithm that utilizes the sparseness of induced currents on the surfaces of perfectly conducting (PEC) scatterers in two-dimensional (2D) space. The main assumption is that the response of the targets can be approximated by that of a few electric filament currents. We compute the locations of the equivalent currents by using the linear model based on the electric field integral equation (EFIE) and l₁ regularization. The paper concerns the experimental verification of the proposed 2D imaging algorithm. By using the image theory, we design an equivalent three-dimensional (3D) experimental model. The obtained results validate the proposed method.