2π ambiguity-free digital holography method for stepped phase imaging

Abstract

It is known that phase ambiguity is always an inherent problem in digital holography. In this paper, a 2 π ambiguity-free digital holography method is proposed. The method naturally avoids phase ambiguity by a quasianalytic method. This quasianalytic method accurately calculates the true phase by constructing an equation and solving the solution of the equation. Thus, the inherent wrapping problem in digital holography is eliminated. For example, our experimental result shows that the true phase of the stepped specimen with the phase distributed in [0, 16 π ] can be obtained unambiguously. Since the proposed method naturally avoids the phase ambiguity problem, it may be beneficial to enlarge the application potential of the digital holography. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method are verified by both numerical simulations and experimental results.