# Frequency Domain-Based Diffusion Model for Unpaired Image Dehazing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01275 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01275/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Inverse problems and image restoration, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 42 of its 66 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jul 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Inverse problems and image restoration](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/inverse-problems-and-image-restoration/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.01507/) (2017)
- [Neural Discrete Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00937/) (2017)
- [CBAM: Convolutional Block Attention Module](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06521/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Feature Learning via Non-Parametric Instance-level Discrimination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.01978/) (2018)
- [RePaint: Inpainting using Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09865/) (2022)
- [Spatial Transformer Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02025/) (2015)
- [Denoising Diffusion Restoration Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11793/) (2022)
- [Simple Baselines for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.04676/) (2022)
- [Contrastive Learning for Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.15651/) (2020)
- [Benchmarking Single Image Dehazing and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.04143/) (2017)
- [DehazeNet: An End-to-End System for Single Image Haze Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.07661/) (2016)
- [FFA-Net: Feature Fusion Attention Network for Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07559/) (2019)
- [Vision Transformers for Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03883/) (2022)
- [DiffIR: Efficient Diffusion Model for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09472/) (2023)
- [Multi-Scale Boosted Dehazing Network with Dense Feature Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.13388/) (2020)
- [GridDehazeNet: Attention-Based Multi-Scale Network for Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.03245/) (2019)
- [Densely Connected Pyramid Dehazing Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.08396/) (2018)
- [Gated Fusion Network for Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.00213/) (2018)
- [Domain Adaptation for Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.04668/) (2020)
- [Model Adaptation with Synthetic and Real Data for Semantic Dense Foggy Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.01265/) (2018)
- [O-HAZE: a dehazing benchmark with real hazy and haze-free outdoor images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.05101/) (2018)
- [Hierarchical Integration Diffusion Model for Realistic Image Deblurring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12966/) (2023)
- [Embedding Fourier for Ultra-High-Definition Low-Light Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.11831/) (2023)
- [Curricular Contrastive Regularization for Physics-aware Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14218/) (2023)
- [Cycle-Dehaze: Enhanced CycleGAN for Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.05308/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Unpaired Image Deraining Using Reward-Guided Self-Reinforcement Strategy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.00719/) (2026)
- [WeatherCycle: Unpaired Multi-Weather Restoration via Color Space Decoupled Cycle Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23150/) (2025)
- [HNDiff: Haze-Noise Diffusion for Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10995/) (2026)
- [SALD: Self-Referenced Advantage Learning for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01496/) (2026)
- [HistoFusionNet: Histogram-Guided Fusion and Frequency-Adaptive Refinement for Nighttime Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03800/) (2026)
- [Dehaze-GaussianImage: Zero-Shot Dehazing via Efficient 2D Gaussian Splatting Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.16163/) (2026)
- [Fi-Gaussian: Frequency-Aware Implicit Gaussian Splatting for Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.16168/) (2026)
- [Efficient Real-World Dehazing via Physics-Inspired Global-Local Decoupling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.25732/) (2026)
- [Registration-Grounded Spectral Fusion for Unregistered WLI/NBI Endoscopic Lesion Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26395/) (2026)
- [LensBridge: Frequency-Guided Compound Degradation Adaptation for Lens Aberration Correction and Veiling Glare Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00318/) (2026)
- [Learning from Failure: Leveraging Unreliable Predictions in Semi-Supervised Real-World Adverse Weather Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.02051/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Unpaired image dehazing has attracted increasing attention due to its flexible data requirements during model training. Dominant methods based on contrastive learning not only introduce haze-unrelated content information, but also ignore haze-specific properties in the frequency domain (ie,~haze-related degradation is mainly manifested in the amplitude spectrum). To address these issues, we propose a novel frequency domain-based diffusion model, named ours, for fully exploiting the beneficial knowledge in unpaired clear data. In particular, inspired by the strong generative ability shown by Diffusion Models (DMs), we tackle the dehazing task from the perspective of frequency domain reconstruction and perform the DMs to yield the amplitude spectrum consistent with the distribution of clear images. To implement it, we propose an Amplitude Residual Encoder (ARE) to extract the amplitude residuals, which effectively compensates for the amplitude gap from the hazy to clear domains, as well as provide supervision for the DMs training. In addition, we propose a Phase Correction Module (PCM) to eliminate artifacts by further refining the phase spectrum during dehazing with a simple attention mechanism. Experimental results demonstrate that our ours outperforms other state-of-the-art methods on both synthetic and real-world datasets.