Diffraction method for recording optical wave fields

We propose a method for recording an optical wave field that is based on diffraction of the optical wave field by two screens that are complementary to each other. We show that the new method ensures the measurement of the phase of the wave field with a high accuracy and spatial resolution. An optical scheme for implementing the diffraction method and an algorithm for reconstructing the phase of the wave field from the measurement data are developed. We perform a computer simulation of the experiment on recording the optical wave field based on the method proposed.