Cramer-rao study of scattering systems in one-dimensional space

A Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) study is developed to characterize the information content about scattering parameters that is contained in reflective (R), transmissive (T), and combined R plus T wave scattering data. The analysis is developed for scalar wave scattering systems in onedimensional space, paying particular attention to elastic scatterers, which simplifies the signal model (relative to more general scattering systems), thereby allowing closedform expressions for the CRB for special cases. The derived CRB results quantify the effect of multiple scattering, be it in enhancing or in diminishing imaging capabilities, relative to the Born approximation model which is customarily used as the standard reference for resolution limits. The paper also discusses the role of the measurement configuration for scatterer information extraction (e.g., reflective data applicable to monostatic radar, versus transmissive data applicable to bistatic radar).