The Effect of the Range of a Modulating Phase Mask on the Retrieval of a Complex Object from Intensity Measurements

Abstract In many fields of science, it is often impossible to preserve the information about the phase of the electromagnetic field, and only the information about the magnitude is available. This is known as the phase problem. Various algorithms have been proposed to recover the information about phase from intensity measurements. Nowadays, iterative algorithms of phase retrieval have become popular. Many of these algorithms are based on modulating the object under study with several masks and retrieving the missing information about the phase of an object by applying mathematical optimization methods. Several of these algorithms are able to retrieve not only the phase but also the magnitude of the object under study. In this study, we investigate the effect of the range of modulation of a mask on the accuracy of the retrieved magnitude and phase map. We conclude that there is a sharp boundary of the range of modulation separating the successfully retrieved magnitude and phase maps from those retrieved unsuccessfully. A decrease in the range of modulation affects the accuracy of the retrieved magnitude and phase map differently.