Direct full compensation of the aberrations in quantitative phase microscopy of thin objects by a single digital hologram

Aberrations and the distortions due to the imaging optics can be compensated in quantitative phase microscopy of thin phase objects by digital holography using a single hologram. The reconstructed quantitative phase microscopy phase distribution map can be directly corrected in the reconstructed image plane by a numerical method. To remove this unwanted aberration, in the special case of thin objects, the authors perform a two-dimensional fit with the Zernike polynomials of the reconstructed unwrapped phase. Subtraction of the fitted polynomial from the original phase map gives quantitative phase microscopy phase map free of aberrations. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.