Interferenceless incoherent digital holography with binary coded apertures optimized using direct binary search

Abstract

Coded aperture correlation holography offers 3D imaging with improved lateral and axial resolutions. This study is an additional advancement in the line of imaging systems with a pseudorandom coded aperture. Starting with the coded aperture correlation holography system implemented on an incoherent on-axis interferometer, we proposed interferenceless and lensless versions of the system. In the present study, we propose replacing the multi-values phase aperture mask with a binary mask. Two binary masks synthesized iteratively are used in two camera shots. Each mask is obtained from an iterative optimization process known as direct binary search, where the optimized cost function is the peak-to-background ratio of a reconstructed point object. Overall, the system demonstrates a lower background noise compared to other methods, enabling 3D imaging capability with only two camera shots, a substantial improvement in comparison to the many shots in the original systems. Using binary masks might extend the usefulness of the coded aperture holography for new regions in the electromagnetic spectrum other than the visual band, as of X-ray and THz bands.