Step phase reconstruction using an anisotropic total variation regularization method in a diffraction phase microscopy

This paper presents an approach to estimate the phase distribution with step features or edge characteristics from an interferogram obtained in diffraction phase microscopy. The proposed approach relies on formulation of a cost function for the interferogram and subsequent application of anisotropic total variation regularization based optimization. In our approach, the cost function is minimized by using a proximal gradient method based iterative approach with alternative updates of the amplitude and the phase. The performance of the proposed approach for retrieving phase maps with rapid edge variations is shown via numerical simulations. Further, the experimental validity of the proposed method is demonstrated for surface topography in diffraction phase microscopy.