Juanjuan Zheng

Parallel two-step phase-shifting point-diffraction interferometry for microscopy based on a pair of cube beamsplitters

Parallel two-step phase-shifting point-diffraction interferometry for microscopy based on a pair of cube beamsplitters is proposed. The first 45°-tilted cube beamsplitter splits object wave into two parallel copies: one copy is filtered by a pinhole in its Fourier plane to behave as reference wave, while the other one remains unchanged as object wave. The second cube beamsplitter combines the object and reference waves, and then split them together into two beams. Along with the two beams, two parallel phase-shifting interferograms are obtained in aid of polarization elements. Based on the proposed configuration, slightly-off-axis interferometry for microscopy is performed, which suppresses dc term by subtracting the two phase-shifting holograms from each other. The setup is highly stable due to its common-path configuration, and has been demonstrated to be suitable for measuring moving objects or dynamic processes.

Autofocusing of digital holographic microscopy based on off-axis illuminations

An auto-focusing method for digital holographic microscopy has been proposed by employing two off-axis illumination beams. When specimens are illuminated by two plane waves in different directions, it is found that the farther the reconstruction plane is from the image plane, the wider the two reconstructed images are separated from each other. Thus, the image plane can be determinated by finding the minimum of the variation between the two reconstructed object waves on both the amplitude and phase distributions. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by the corresponding simulation and experiment.

Autofocusing based on wavelength dependence of diffraction in two-wavelength digital holographic microscopy.

An autofocusing method for two-wavelength digital holographic microscopy (TWDHM) based on the wavelength dependence of the diffraction process is proposed. Red and green lights are employed for the illumination of the TWDHM, and the generated holograms are recorded simultaneously by a color CCD camera. Due to the wavelength dependency of the diffraction process, the farther the reconstruction plane is from the image plane, the larger the difference is between the red and green light distributions. Thus, the image plane can be determined by finding the minimum of the variation between the red and green lights on their amplitude distributions. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulation and experiment.

Dual-wavelength slightly off-axis digital holographic microscopy

We propose dual-wavelength digital holographic microscopy with a slightly off-axis configuration. The axial measurement range without phase ambiguity is extended to the micrometer range by synthesizing a beat wavelength between the two wavelengths with separation of 157 nm. Real-time measurement of the specimen is made possible by virtue of the high wavelength selectivity of the Bayer mosaic filtered color CCD camera. The principle of the method is exposed, and the practicability of the proposed configuration is demonstrated by the experimental results on a vortex phase plate and a rectangular phase step.

Parallel two-step phase-shifting digital holograph microscopy based on a grating pair

An optical configuration for parallel two-step phase-shifting digital holographic microscopy (DHM) based on a grating pair is proposed for the purpose of real-time phase microscopy. Orthogonally circularly polarized object and reference waves are diffracted twice by a pair of gratings, and two parallel copies for each beams come into being. Combined with polarization elements, parallel two-step phase-shifting holograms are obtained. Based on the proposed configuration, two schemes of DHM, i.e., slightly off-axis and on-axis DHM, have been implemented. The slightly off-axis DHM suppresses the dc term by subtracting the two phase-shifting holograms from each other, thus the requirement on the off-axis angle and sampling power of the CCD camera is reduced greatly. The on-axis DHM has the least requirement on the resolving power of the CCD camera, while it requires that the reference wave is premeasured and its intensity is no less than 2 times the maximal intensity of the object wave.

Parallel phase-shifting interferometry based on Michelson-like architecture

In this paper, we present a new scheme for parallel phase-shifting interferometry that employs a Michelson-like architecture and a simple polarization unit to generate two phase-shifting interferograms with phase shift of π/2 at a single camera exposure. The parallel phase-shifting unit is built with simple optical components, and the distance between the parallel interferograms can be adjusted conveniently. Phase reconstruction is performed by using an algorithm developed for two-step phase-shifting interferometry. The practicability of the proposed configuration and the reconstruction method is demonstrated by experiments.

Fluorescence volume imaging with an axicon: simulation study based on scalar diffraction method

In a two-photon excitation fluorescence volume imaging (TPFVI) system, an axicon is used to generate a Bessel beam and at the same time to collect the generated fluorescence to achieve large depth of field. A slice-by-slice diffraction propagation model in the frame of the angular spectrum method is proposed to simulate the whole imaging process of TPFVI. The simulation reveals that the Bessel beam can penetrate deep in scattering media due to its self-reconstruction ability. The simulation also demonstrates that TPFVI can image a volume of interest in a single raster scan. Two-photon excitation is crucial to eliminate the signals that are generated by the side lobes of Bessel beams; the unwanted signals may be further suppressed by placing a spatial filter in the front of the detector. The simulation method will guide the system design in improving the performance of a TPFVI system.

Autofocusing and resolution enhancement in digital holographic microscopy by using speckle-illumination

Sequential speckle illumination has been incorporated into digital holographic microscopy (DHM) for autofocusing and resolution enhancement. For autofocusing, the image plane is numerically determined by searching for the minimal deviation among the reconstructed images obtained by different speckle illuminations and propagating the object wave to the image plane accordingly. Furthermore, an iterative method is used to synthesize the numerical aperture from the reconstructed object waves obtained by different speckle illuminations, in order to achieve resolution enhancement. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by both simulation and experiment.

Digital holographic microscopy with phase-shift-free structured illumination

When structured illumination is used in digital holographic microscopy (DHM), each direction of the illumination fringe is required to be shifted at least three times to perform the phase-shifting reconstruction. In this paper, we propose a scheme for spatial resolution enhancement of DHM by using the structured illumination but without phase shifting. The structured illuminations of different directions, which are generated by a spatial light modulator, illuminate the sample sequentially in the object plane. The formed object waves interfere with a reference wave in an off-axis configuration, and a CCD camera records the generated hologram. After the object waves are reconstructed numerically, a synthetic aperture is performed by an iterative algorithm to enhance the spatial resolution. The resolution improvement of the proposed method is proved and demonstrated by both simulation and experiment.

Bessel beam CARS of axially structured samples

We report about a Bessel beam CARS approach for axial profiling of multi-layer structures. This study presents an experimental implementation for the generation of CARS by Bessel beam excitation using only passive optical elements. Furthermore, an analytical expression is provided describing the generated anti-Stokes field by a homogeneous sample. Based on the concept of coherent transfer functions, the underling resolving power of axially structured geometries is investigated. It is found that through the non-linearity of the CARS process in combination with the folded illumination geometry continuous phase-matching is achieved starting from homogeneous samples up to spatial sample frequencies at twice of the pumping electric field wave. The experimental and analytical findings are modeled by the implementation of the Debye Integral and scalar Green function approach. Finally, the goal of reconstructing an axially layered sample is demonstrated on the basis of the numerically simulated modulus and phase of the anti-Stokes far-field radiation pattern.