High-Sensitivity X-ray Phase Imaging System Based on a Hartmann Wavefront Sensor

The Hartman wavefront sensor can be used for X-ray phase imaging with high angular resolution. The Hartmann sensor is able to retrieve both the phase and absorption from a single acquisition. The system calculates the shift in a series of apertures imaged with a detector with respect to their reference positions. In this article, the impact of the reference image on the final image quality is investigated using a laboratory setup. Deflection and absorption images of the same sample are compared using reference images acquired in air and in water. It can be easily coupled with tomographic setups to obtain 3D images of both phase and absorption. Tomographic images of a test sample are shown, where deflection images revealed details that were invisible in absorption. The findings reported in this paper can be used for the improvement of image reconstruction and for expanding the applications of X-ray phase imaging towards materials characterization and medical imaging.

Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensing of Ultrashort Optical Vortices

Light beams carrying Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), also known as optical vortices (OV), have led to fascinating new developments in fields ranging from quantum communication to novel light–matter interaction aspects. Even though several techniques have emerged to synthesize these structured-beams, their detection, in particular, single-shot amplitude, wavefront, and modal content characterization, remains a challenging task. Here, we report the single-shot amplitude, wavefront, and modal content characterization of ultrashort OV using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. These vortex beams are obtained using spiral phase plates (SPPs) that are frequently used for high-intensity applications. The reconstructed wavefronts display a helical structure compatible with the topological charge induced by the SPPs. We affirm the accuracy of the optical field reconstruction by the wavefront sensor through an excellent agreement between the numerically backpropagated and experimentally obtained intensity distribution at the waist. Consequently, through Laguerre–Gauss (LG) decomposition of the reconstructed fields, we reveal the radial and azimuthal mode composition of vortex beams under different conditions. The potential of our method is further illustrated by characterizing asymmetric Gaussian vortices carrying fractional average OAM, and a realtime topological charge measurement at a 10Hz repetition rate. These results can promote Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing as a single-shot OV characterization tool.

Angle-based wavefront sensing enabled by the near fields of flat optics

There is a long history of using angle sensors to measure wavefront. The best example is the Shack-Hartmann sensor. Compared to other methods of wavefront sensing, angle-based approach is more broadly used in industrial applications and scientific research. Its wide adoption is attributed to its fully integrated setup, robustness, and fast speed. However, there is a long-standing issue in its low spatial resolution, which is limited by the size of the angle sensor. Here we report a angle-based wavefront sensor to overcome this challenge. It uses ultra-compact angle sensor built from flat optics. It is directly integrated on focal plane array. This wavefront sensor inherits all the benefits of the angle-based method. Moreover, it improves the spatial sampling density by over two orders of magnitude. The drastically improved resolution allows angle-based sensors to be used for quantitative phase imaging, enabling capabilities such as video-frame recording of high-resolution surface topography.