Patent ID: 8194124

Claim:
A holographic microscope comprising: a source configured to provide a diverging beam of radiation, a beam splitter configured to direct a first portion of the diverging beam towards an object and a second portion of the diverging beam towards a reflector, the beam splitter being further configured to direct an object beam from the object and a reference beam from the reflector towards a transducer, and the transducer being configured to provide a signal indicative of the interference pattern of the object beam and the reference beam incident on the transducer, wherein the signal is a digital signal, and further comprising a processor configured to receive the signal and to determine desired characteristics of the object based on at least the signal, the processor configured to process the signal by: storing the signal in the form of a digital hologram, zero padding the digital hologram, determining a reconstruction wave, determining an impulse response function, and determining a reconstructed wavefront based on the zero padded hologram, the reconstruction wave and the impulse response.