Recently a spatial spiral phase filter in a Fourier plane of a microscopic imaging setup has been demonstrated to produce edge enhancement and relief-like shadow formation of amplitude and phase samples. Here we demonstrate that a sequence of at least 3 spatially filtered images, which are recorded with different rotational orientations of the spiral phase plate, can be used to obtain a quantitative reconstruction of both, amplitude and phase information of a complex microscopic sample, i.e. an object consisting of mixed absorptive and refractive components. The method is demonstrated using a calibrated phase sample, and an epithelial cheek cell.

We present a fast and flexible non-interferometric method for the correction of small surface deviations on spatial light modulators, based on the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm. The surface distortion information is extracted from the shape of a single optical vortex, which is created by the light modulator. The method can be implemented in optical tweezers systems for an optimization of trapping fields, or in an imaging system for an optimization of the point-spread-function of the entire image path.

We present an implementation method for noiseless holographic projection of precalculated light fields with a spatial light modulator. In the reconstructed image, both the spatial amplitude and phase distributions can be programmed independently. This is achieved by diffracting the light from two successive phase holograms that are located in conjugate Fourier planes. The light path is folded such that the two corresponding phase masks can be displayed side by side at a single phase-only spatial light modulator. Such a device has relevant applications in holographic displayor projection systems, and for optical micromanipulation in laser tweezers.

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