Automatic focusing for multisectional objects in digital holography using the structure tensor.

Determining the axial position of the recorded object in digital holography is a crucial step for image reconstruction. When multiple discrete sections of a three-dimensional object are overlapping each other, this issue becomes more challenging. In this Letter, an autofocusing algorithm using the structure tensor and its eigenvalues is proposed. This method can extract the focal distance of each section for a multi-sectional object irrespective of whether the sections are overlapping or not. We validate the applicability of the proposed technique with synthesized and experimental data using two types of holographic systems.