Phase from chromatic aberrations

We show that phase objects may be computed accurately from a single color image in a brightfield microscope, with no hardware modification. Our technique uses the chromatic aberration that is inherent to every lens-based imaging system as a phase contrast mechanism. This leads to a simple and inexpensive way of achieving single-shot quantitative phase recovery by a modified Transport of Intensity Equation (TIE) solution, allowing real-time phase imaging in a traditional microscope. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America