Single-shot three-input phase retrieval for quantitative back focal plane measurement

This paper presents quantitative measurements facilitated with a new optical system that implements a single-shot three-input phase retrieval algorithm. The new system allows simultaneous acquisition of three distinct input patterns, thus eliminating the requirement for mechanical movement and reducing any registration errors and microphonics. We demonstrate the application of the system for measurement and separation of two distinct attenuation measurements of surface waves, namely, absorption and coupling loss. This is achieved by retrieving the phase in the back focal plane and performing a series of virtual optics computations. This overcomes the need to use a complicated series of hardware manipulations with a spatial light modulator. This gives a far more accurate and faster measurement with a simpler optical system. We also demonstrate that phase measurements allow us to implement different measurement methods to acquire the excitation angle for surface plasmons. Depending on the noise statistics different methods have superior performance, so the best method under particular conditions can be selected. Since the measurements are only weakly correlated, they may also be combined for improved noise performance. The results presented here offer a template for a wider class of measurements in the back focal plane including ellipsometry.