UC Berkeley

We propose a new method for phase retrieval that uses partially coherent illumination created by any arbitrary source shape in Köhler geometry. Using a stack of defocused intensity images, we recover not only the phase and amplitude of the sample, but also an estimate of the unknown source shape, which describes the spatial coherence of the illumination. Our algorithm uses a Kalman filtering approach which is fast, accurate and robust to noise. The method is experimentally simple and flexible, so should find use in optical, electron, X-ray and other phase imaging systems which employ partially coherent light. We provide an experimental demonstration in an optical microscope with various condenser apertures.