The inverse transformation of angular spectrum propagation algorithm and its application to phase retrieval

An angular spectrum propagation (ASP) algorithm with a scaling parameter to simulate optical diffraction propagation through optical systems is studied. The alterable observation size is obtained by adding the scaling parameter to the Collins formula. A directly mathematical inverse transformation of the ASP algorithm (IASP) is proposed to calculate the source optical field from the known observation optical field, and the results are proved more precise. The IASP algorithm is applied to execute the phase retrieval to derive the aberrations of optical systems from intensity profiles measured in the observation plane. The derived aberrations are fitted by Zernike polynomials under the constraint that the wavefront aberrations are smooth. Numerical simulations are performed to test the accuracy of this method.