Phase retrieval with tunable phase transfer function based on the transport of intensity equation

Recovering phase information with Deterministic approaches as the Transport of Intensity Equation (TIE) has recently emerged as an alternative tool to the interferometric techniques because it is experimentally easy to implement and provides fast and accurate results. Moreover, the potential of employing partially coherent illumination (PCI) in such techniques allow obtaining high quality phase reconstructions providing that the estimation of the corresponding Phase Transfer Function (PTF) is carried out correctly. Hence, accurate estimation of the PTF requires that the physical properties of the optical system are well known. Typically, these parameters are assumed constant in all the set of measurements, which might not be optimal. In this work, we proposed the use of an amplitude Spatial Light Modulator (aSLM) for tuning the degree of coherence of the optical system. The aSLM will be placed at the Fourier plane of the optical system, and then, band pass filters will be displayed. This methodology will perform amplitude modulation of the propagated field and as a result, the state of coherence of the optical system can be modified. Theoretical and experimental results that validate our proposed technique will be shown.