Experimental verification of coherent diffractive imaging by a direct phase retrieval method with an aperture-array filter

Recently, we have proposed a coherent diffractive imaging using a noniterative phase retrieval method with the filter of an aperture array. The first (to our knowledge) experimental demonstration of this coherent imaging is presented here, in which a complex-valued object illuminated by a diode laser is reconstructed from the isolated diffraction intensities of the object's wave field, transmitted through an array filter of square apertures by using the phase retrieval method. This imaging method requires only a single measurement of the diffraction intensity and does not need a tight object's support constraint utilized in iterative phase retrieval algorithms or a reference wave used in holographic techniques. (c) 2011 Optical Society of America