title: Compensation of the inherent wave front curvature in digital holographic coherent microscopy for quantitative phase-contrast imaging.
abstract: An approach is proposed for removing the wavefront curvature introduced by the microscope imaging objective in digital holography, which otherwise hinders the phase contrast imaging at reconstruction planes. The unwanted curvature is compensated by evaluating a correcting wave front at the hologram plane with no need for knowledge of the optial parameters, focal length of the imaging lens, or distances in the setup. Most importantly it is shown that a correction effect can be obtained at all reconstruction planes. Three different methods have been applied to evaluate the correction wave front and the methods are discussed in detail. The proposed approach is demonstrated by applying digital holography as a method of coherent microscopy for imaging amplitude and phase contrast of microstructures.
authors.affiliation: Istituto per la Microelettronica e i Microsistemi (IMM, Sez. Napoli) del CNR, Via Diocleziano 328, 80124 Napoli, Italy. p.ferraro@cib.na.cnr.it
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferraro
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Nicola
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Finizio
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Coppola
authors.forename: Simonetta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grilli
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Magro
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pierattini