Addressing phase-curvature in Fourier ptychography

Area of Science:

• Microscopy
• Computational Imaging
• Optics

Background:

• Fourier ptychography (FP) computationally combines low-resolution images for high-resolution microscopy.
• Current FP models often assume plane-wave illumination, neglecting phase curvature effects.
• This limitation restricts accurate reconstruction in certain microscopy setups.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an extended Fourier ptychography forward model that accounts for phase curvature.
• To enable accurate quantitative phase reconstruction over wide fields of view.
• To improve the computational efficiency and applicability of Fourier ptychography.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel forward model for Fourier ptychography that embeds phase curvature effects.
• Integrated the phase curvature into the image formation process computationally.
• Validated the method's accuracy and efficiency for quantitative phase reconstruction.

Main Results:

• The enhanced model accurately reconstructs quantitative phase information, even with phase curvature.
• The method successfully reconstructs wide fields of view without requiring image segmentation.
• The computational overhead is minimal, requiring only two multiplications per reconstruction.

Conclusions:

• The proposed extension significantly improves the accuracy and versatility of Fourier ptychography.
• This method offers a computationally efficient solution for quantitative phase imaging in microscopy.
• The findings enable broader applications of Fourier ptychography in various scientific fields.