High-speed phase aberration correction in digital holographic microscopy via vortex-Legendre method

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is an effective technique for quantitative phase imaging (QPI) of microscopic samples, yet its accuracy hinges on precise compensation of wavefront aberrations. Conventional methods often rely on iterative, time-intensive procedures or additional optical elements, making it difficult to rapidly and accurately generate fully compensated phase maps. This work introduces a numerical optical vortex as an efficient method for automatically correcting the tilt aberration introduced in off-axis DHM. In addition, combining numerical optical vortices with a robust implementation of Legendre polynomial fitting addresses residual higher-order phase errors. This combined vortex-Legendre method markedly improves the background flatness of reconstructed phase maps, achieving an average slope of 1.8×10−4 rad/pixel across the entire imaged field of view. Validation using calibrated phase objects, such as USAF test targets and star targets, as well as biological samples (e.g., red blood cells), demonstrates its effectiveness in reducing computational overhead to approximately 1 second on a conventional laptop while maintaining high measurement quality for 960×1280-px2 holograms. This robust and fully automated technique represents a significant advancement in real-time, high-accuracy phase imaging for DHM applications