Ghost diffraction holographic microscopy

Unconventional systems that adopt the concept of ghost schemes have led to advancements in some imaging applications. However, their application in quantitative phase imaging remains a challenge. Here, we introduce a basis for quantitative phase imaging with ghost diffraction and demonstrate ghost diffraction holographic microscopy for complex-valued imaging. We achieve this by introducing an off-axis holography approach in the modified ghost diffraction system. We also realize a correlation hologram in the cross-correlation of intensities from two detectors in the modified ghost diffraction setup and digitally process the correlation hologram to image complex-valued objects. To generate experiment results, we use a modified interferometer setup and exploit the spatial statistics of the scattered field from a time-frozen pseudothermal light source. Finally, we evaluate the efficacy of the approach by simulation and follow that with experiments that demonstrate imaging of pure phase objects, planar transparencies, and resolution test targets, among others.