Quantitative phase microscopy using quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry (QLSI): principle, terminology, algorithm and grating shadow description

Abstract

Quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry (QLSI) is a quantitative phase imaging technique based on the use of a diffraction grating placed in front of a camera. This grating creates a wire-mesh-like image, called an interferogram, that is postprocessed to retrieve both the intensity and phase profiles of an incoming light beam. Invented in the 90s, QLSI has been used in numerous applications, e.g., laser beam characterization, lens metrology, topography measurements, adaptive optics, or gas jet metrology. More recently, the technique has been implemented on optical microscopes to characterize micro and nano-objects for bioimaging and nanophotonics applications. However, not much effort has been placed on disseminating this powerful technology so far, while it is yet a particularly simple technique. In this article, we intend to popularize this technique by describing all its facets in the framework of optical microscopy, namely the working principle, its implementation on a microscope and the theory of image formation, using simple pictures. Also, we provide and comment an algorithm of interferogram processing, written in Matlab. Then, following the new extension of the technique for microscopy and nanophotonics applications, and the deviation from what the technique was initially invented for, we propose to revisit the description of the technique, in particular by discussing the terminology, insisting more on a grating-shadow description rather than a quadriwave process, and proposing an alternative appellation, namely "grating shadow phase microscopy" or "grating-assisted phase imaging".