Wavefront imaging of a biological sample using DMD-based single-pixel phase-shifting interferometric techniques: An experimental comparison

Single-pixel wavefront imaging (SWI) is an innovative technique for simultaneously measuring the amplitude and phase of an unknown field, which is particularly important for wavefront imaging in invisible wavelengths and under low light conditions. However, most of the existing SWI techniques are still in the technical development stage. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the SWI methods using DMD-based single-pixel multi-step phase-shifting interferometric techniques. Through experimental demonstrations, we first compare the performances of the techniques using the Hadamard basis, Fourier basis, and discrete cosine transform (DCT) basis. Further, the performances of the Hadamard basis-based SWI (HSWI) technique using phase-shifting interferometry with the different reference strategies are investigated while the binary grating, Lee, and super-pixel methods are applied to control the DMD for realizing the necessary complex amplitude modulations there. Experimental results suggest the grating-phase-shifting-based HSWI performs best, in which one can use the checkerboard reference for the maximum field of view or select the peripheral reference for a better imaging resolution; and it can do 2 fps wavefront imaging of the sample at 10 % downsampling rate with a resolution of 128 × 128 pixels. Our work provides researchers with a guideline to choose a suitable SWI technique for their applications.