Fast pixel shifting phase unwrapping algorithm in quantitative interferometric microscopy

Quantitative interferometric microscopy is an important method for observing biological samples such as cells and tissues. As a key step in phase recovery, a fast phase unwrapping algorithm is proposed. By shifting mod 2\pi wrapped phase map for one pixel, then multiplying the original phase map and the shifted one, the phase discontinuities could be easily determined with high speed and efficiency. The method aims at enhancing phase retrieving efficiency without any background knowledge. We test our algorithm with both numerical simulation and experiments, by focusing our attentions on wrapped quantitative phase maps of cells. The results indicate that this algorithm features fast, precise and reliable.