Enhanced Quantitative Wavefront Imaging for Nano-Object Characterization

Quantitative phase imaging enables precise and label-free characterizations of individual nano-objects within a large volume, without a priori knowledge of the sample or imaging system.While emerging common path implementations are simple enough to promise a broad dissemination, their phase sensitivity still falls short of precisely estimating the mass or polarizability of vesicles, viruses, or nanoparticles in single-shot acquisitions.In this paper, we revisit the Zernike filtering concept, originally crafted for intensity-only detectors, with the aim of adapting it to wavefront imaging.We demonstrate, through numerical simulation and experiments based on high-resolution wavefront sensing, that a simple Fourier-plane add-on can significantly enhance phase sensitivity for subdiffraction objects�achieving over an order of magnitude increase (×12)�while allowing the quantitative retrieval of both intensity and phase.This advancement allows for more precise nano-object detection and metrology.