Shrinkage-Thresholding Enhanced Born Iterative Method for Solving 2D Inverse Electromagnetic Scattering Problem

A numerical framework that incorporates recently developed iterative shrinkage thresholding (IST) algorithms within the Born iterative method (BIM) is proposed for solving the two-dimensional inverse electromagnetic scattering problem. IST algorithms minimize a cost function weighted between measurement-data misfit and a zeroth/first-norm penalty term and therefore promote “sharpness” in the solution. Consequently, when applied to domains with sharp variations, discontinuities, or sparse content, the proposed framework is more efficient and accurate than the “classical” BIM that minimizes a cost function with a second-norm penalty term. Indeed, numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the IST-BIM over the classical BIM when they are applied to sparse domains: Permittivity and conductivity profiles recovered using the IST-BIM are sharper and more accurate and converge faster.