Source diversity for transport of intensity phase imaging.

The transport of intensity equation (TIE) is a phase retrieval method that relies on measurements of the intensity of a paraxial field under propagation between two or more closely spaced planes. A limitation of TIE is its susceptibility to low frequency noise artifacts in the reconstructed phase. Under Köhler illumination, when both illumination power and exposure time are limited, the use of larger sources can improve low-frequency performance although it introduces blurring. Appropriately combining intensity measurements taken with a diversity of source sizes can improve both low- and high-frequency performance in phase reconstruction.