An Approximation of 2-D Inverse Scattering Problems From a Convex Optimization Perspective

We present a two-step strategy to solve an inverse scattering problem in 2-D geometry. The first step approximates the inverse scattering as a convex optimization problem and provides an estimation of the total field inside the domain under investigation without a priori knowledge or tuning parameters. In the second step, the previously estimated total field is used to reconstruct the unknown contrast permittivity, which is represented by a superposition of level-1 Haar wavelet transform basis functions. Subject to ℓ₁-norm constraints of the wavelet coefficients, a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) problem that searches for the global minimum of the ℓ₂-norm residual is exploited by accounting for the sparsity of the wavelet-based permittivity representation. Numerical results are presented to assess the effectiveness of the proposed formulation against objects with relatively small electric size. Finally, the approach is validated against experimental data.