Holographic phase retrieval via Wirtinger flow: Cartesian form with auxiliary amplitude

We propose a new gradient method for holography, where a phase-only hologram is parameterized by not only the phase but also amplitude. The key idea of our approach is the formulation of a phase-only hologram using an auxiliary amplitude. We optimize the parameters using the so-called Wirtinger flow algorithm in the Cartesian domain, which is a gradient method defined on the basis of the Wirtinger calculus. At the early stage of optimization, each element of the hologram exists inside a complex circle, and it can take a large gradient while diverging from the origin. This characteristic contributes to accelerating the gradient descent. Meanwhile, at the final stage of optimization, each element evolves along a complex circle, similar to previous state-of-the-art gradient methods. The experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms previous methods, primarily due to the optimization of the amplitude.