Interferenceless coded aperture correlation holography with point spread holograms of isolated chaotic islands for 3D imaging

Interferenceless coded aperture correlation holography (I-COACH) is an incoherent digital holographic technique with lateral and axial resolution similar to a regular lens-based imaging system. The properties of I-COACH are dictated by the shape of the system’s point response termed point spread hologram (PSH). As previously shown, chaotic PSHs which are continuous over some area on the image sensor enable the system to perform three-dimensional (3D) holographic imaging. We also showed that a PSH of an ensemble of sparse dots improves the system’s signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) but reduces the dimensionality of the imaging from three to two dimensions. In this study, we test the midway shape of PSH, an ensemble of sparse islands distributed over the sensor plane. A PSH of isolated chaotic islands improves the SNR of the system compared to continuous chaotic PSH without losing the capability to perform 3D imaging. Reconstructed images of this new system are compared with images of continuous PSH, dot-based PSH, and direct images of a lens-based system. Visibility, SNR, and the product of visibility with SNR are the parameters used in the study. We also demonstrate the imaging capability of a system with partial annular apertures. The reconstruction results have better SNR and visibility than lens-based imaging systems with the same annular apertures.