High-SNR single-pixel phase-imaging in the UV-VIS-NIR range

Phase imaging observes the phase of light interacted with the target. The conventional phase imaging methods such as interferometry employ two-dimensional sensors for image capture, resulting in limited spectrum range and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Single-pixel imaging (SPI) provides an alternative solution for high-SNR acquisition of target information over a wide range of spectrum. However, the conventional SPI can only reconstruct light intensity without phase. Existing phase imaging methods using a single-pixel detector require phase modulation, leading to low light efficiency, slow modulation speed and poor noise robustness. In this paper, we propose a novel single-pixel phase imaging method without phase modulation. First, the binary intensity modulation is applied which provides simplified optical setup and high light efficiency. Second, inspired by the phase-retrieval theory, we derive a joint optimization algorithm to reconstruct both amplitude and phase information of the target, from the intensity measurements collected by a single-pixel detector. Both simulations and experiments demonstrate that the proposed method has high SNR, high frame rate, wide spectrum range (UV+VIS+NIR) and strong noise robustness. The method can be widely applied in optics, material and life science.