Virtual ghost imaging through turbulence and obscurants using Bessel beam illumination

We experimentally demonstrate a single sensor virtual ghost imaging (VGI) configuration that uses the physics of nearly diffraction free light sources to penetrate partially obscuring media or turbulent media and generate images of remote opaque objects. Randomly displaced nearly diffraction free Bessel beams provided improved illumination patterns for VGI and resolving small distant targets. VGI recovered the image of objects even when the coarse illuminating Bessel beam was transmitted through obscuring and turbulent media or through a small transversely displaced aperture. Bessel beam experiments are compared with Gaussian beam experiments under similar conditions.