Partially coherent spiral phase contrast imaging with a 3D-like effect

Abstract Spiral phase contrast (SPC) imaging provides an effective way to isotropic edge detection for biomedical applications. Here, we present a computational SPC imaging method which combines the partially coherent illumination with the symmetry-breaking spiral phase filtering. Such an operation enables the SPC imaging to generate sharp, high-contrast and pseudo three-dimensional edge images that are almost free of speckle. The superior performance is demonstrated by imaging both amplitude and phase objects, and the speckle suppression is validated by comparing the coherent and partially coherent imaging results. This computational SPC method is expected to bring potential advantages to phase contrast imaging modality.