Nonlinear phase retrieval from single-distance radiograph

Phase contrast in the object plane of a phase object is retrieved from intensity contrast at a single object-detector distance. Expanding intensity contrast and phase shift in the detector plane in powers of object-detector distance, phase retrieval is performed beyond the solution to the linearized transport-of-intensity equation. The expansion coefficients are determined by the entire paraxial wave equation. The Laplacian of the phase shift in the object plane thus is written as a local expression linear in the intensity contrast and nonlinear in the phase shift in the object plane. A perturbative approach to this expression is proposed and tested with simulated phantom data. (c) 2010 Optical Society of America