A Microwave Method for the Step-Like Reconstruction of Layered Dielectric Media

An improved iterative approach to reconstruct inhomogeneous dielectric half-space using the reflection coefficient data collected over some frequency band is described. The reconstruction at each iteration is performed by solving a linear integral equation for two different sets of expanding functions. The first solution yields positions of reflecting boundaries between layers; the second one provides step-like correction term to the initial profile. The method is fast, works well with essentially bandlimited information (frequency band of 1 to 4 GHz has been used) and demonstrates very good robustness (at least 15% of a random noise in the input data is acceptable without bad deterioration of the solution). Some numerical and experimental examples are presented.