Joint reconstruction of an in-focus image and of the background signal in in-line holographic microscopy

Abstract In-line digital holography is a simple yet powerful tool to image absorbing and/or phase objects. However, the holograms of interest are corrupted by the background signal due to unwanted scattering elements located in the optical path. Using only two holograms of the same object, shifted to different locations, an inverse problems approach is applied to jointly estimate the complex transmittance of the sample and the contribution of the interferent background signal at the sensor plane. Experimental results with stained bacteria are presented and show improved reconstructions of the sample while also accounting for the background contribution.