Fourier transform holography with extended references using a coherent ultra-broadband light source

We demonstrate a technique that enables lensless holographic imaging with extended reference structures, using ultra-broadband radiation sources for illumination. We show that this 'two-pulse imaging' approach works with one- and two-dimensional HERALDO reference structures, and demonstrate that the obtained spectrally resolved data can be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in the final image. Intensity stitching of multiple exposures is applied to increase the detected dynamic range, leading to an improved image reconstruction. Furthermore, we show that a combination of holography and iterative phase retrieval can be used to obtain high-quality images quickly and reliably, by using the HERALDO reconstruction as the initial support constraint in the iterative phase retrieval algorithm. A signal-to-noise improvement of two orders of magnitude is achieved compared to the basic HERALDO result