Selective edge enhancement in three-dimensional vortex imaging with incoherent light

Abstract

We demonstrate a new imaging method enabling a selective edge contrast enhancement of three-dimensional amplitude objects with spatially incoherent light. The imaging process is achieved in a spiral modification of Fresnel incoherent correlation holography and uses a vortex impulse response function. The correlation recordings of the object are acquired in a one-way interferometer with the wavefront division carried out by a spatial light modulator. Two different methods based on applying a helical reference wave in the hologram recording and a digital spiral phase modulation in image reconstruction are proposed for edge enhancement of amplitude objects. Results of both isotropic and anisotropic spiral imaging are demonstrated in experiments using an LED as an incoherent source of light.