Reconstruction of the Refractive Index from Experimental Backscattering Data Using a Globally Convergent Inverse Method

The problem to be studied in this work is within the context of coefficient identification problems for the wave equation. More precisely, we consider the problem of reconstruction of the refractive index (or equivalently, the dielectric constant) of an inhomogeneous medium using one backscattering boundary measurement. The goal of this paper is to analyze the performance of the globally convergent algorithm of Beilina and Klibanov on experimental data collected using a microwave scattering facility at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The main challenge in working with experimental data is the huge misfit between these data and computationally simulated data. We present data preprocessing steps to make the former somehow look similar to the latter. Results of both nonblind and blind targets are shown that indicate good reconstructions even for high contrasts between the targets and the background medium