"Finding the Lost Phase: Optical Applications of Phase Retrieval"

Steve Lipson, The Technion

abstract

When you observe an object's diffraction pattern, you can record the
intensity, but lose all knowledge of the phase of the scattered radiation.
But a minimal knowledge of some properties of the object can allow the
phase to be derived from the intensity distribution. This is the basis of
modern X-ray crystallography. It has also led to the development of some
new methods in optical testing, which were dramatically proven with the
Hubble Space Telescope and which we have recently applied to other
systems.