Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is a valuable label-free modality that has gained significant interest due to its wide potentials, from basic biology to clinical applications. Most existing QPI systems measure microscopic objects via interferometry or nonlinear iterative phase reconstructions from intensity measurements. However, all imaging systems compromise spatial resolution for field of view and vice versa, i.e., suffer from a limited space bandwidth product. Current solutions to this problem involve computational phase retrieval algorithms, which are time-consuming and often suffer from convergence problems. In this article, we presented synthetic aperture interference light (SAIL) microscopy as a novel modality for high-resolution, wide field of view QPI. The proposed approach employs low-coherence interferometry to directly measure the optical phase delay under different illumination angles and produces large space-bandwidth product (SBP) label-free imaging. We validate the performance of SAIL on standard samples and illustrate the biomedical applications on various specimens: pathology slides, entire insects, and dynamic live cells in large cultures. The reconstructed images have a synthetic numeric aperture of 0.45, and a field of view of 2.6 x 2.6 mm2. Due to its direct measurement of the phase information, SAIL microscopy does not require long computational time, eliminates data redundancy, and always converges.
We report a novel microscopy platform, termed Multi-Aperture Fourier ptychographic microscopy (MA-FPM), capable of realizing gigapixel complex field images with large data acquisition bandwidths - in gigapixels per second. MA-FPM is a synthetic aperture technique- an array of objectives together with tilt-shift illumination are used to synthesize high-resolution, wide field-of-view images. Here, the phase is recovered using Fourier ptychography (FP) algorithms, unlike conventional optical synthetic aperture techniques where holographic measurements are used. The parallel data-acquisition capab…
Our ability to optically interrogate nanoscopic objects is controlled by the difference between their extinction cross sections and the diffraction limited area to which light can be confined in the far field. We show that a partially transmissive spatial mask placed near the back focal plane of a high numerical aperture microscope objective enhances the extinction contrast of a scatterer near an interface by approximately $T^{-1/2}$, where T is the transmissivity of the mask. Numerical aperture based differentiation of background from scattered light represents a general approach to increasin…
The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is employed to solve the three dimensional Maxwell equation for the situation of near-field microscopy using a sub-wavelength aperture. Experimental result on unexpected high spatial resolution is reproduced by our computer simulation.
The theoretical approach to describe the defocusing microscopy technique by U. Agero et al. [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 67}, 051904 (2003)] assumes that the size of the objective lens aperture is infinite. This treatment gives that the intensity at the image plane depends on the laplacian of the phase introduced in the field by a pure phase object. In the present paper, we consider an arbitrary size for the aperture of the objective lens and we conclude that the intensity at the image plane depends also on the gradient of the phase introduced by the object and the phase itself. In this case, even an ob…
We present a computational method for full-range interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM) under dispersion encoding. With this, one can effectively double the depth range of optical coherence tomography (OCT), whilst dramatically enhancing the spatial resolution away from the focal plane. To this end, we propose a model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) method, where ISAM is directly considered in an optimization approach, and we make the discovery that sparsity promoting regularization effectively recovers the full-range signal. Within this work, we adopt an optimal nonuniform…
We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a multifrequency excitation and detection scheme in apertureless near field optical microscopy, that exceeds current state of the art sensitivity and background suppression. By exciting the AFM tip at its two first flexural modes, and demodulating the detected signal at the harmonics of their sum, we extract a near field signal with a twofold improved sensitivity and deep sub-wavelength resolution, reaching $λ/230$. Furthermore, the method offers rich control over experimental degrees of freedom, expanding the parameter space for achieving comple…
We discuss theoretically the concept of spatial resolution in near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) in light of a recent work [Opt. Express 17 (2009) 19969] which reported on the achievement of active tips made of a single ultrasmall fluorescent nanodiamond grafted onto the apex of a substrate tip and on their validation in NSOM imaging. Since fluorescent nanodiamonds tend to decrease steadily in size, we assimilate a nanodiamond-based tip to a point-like single photon source and compare its ultimate resolution with that offered by standard metal-coated aperture NSOM tips. We demonstra…
Light diffraction through a subwavelength aperture located at the apex of a metallic screen with conical geometry is investigated theoretically. A method based on a multipole field expansion is developed to solve Maxwell's equations analytically using boundary conditions adapted both for the conical geometry and for the finite conductivity of a real metal. The topological properties of the diffracted field are discussed in detail and compared to those of the field diffracted through a small aperture in a flat screen, i. e. the Bethe problem. The model is applied to coated, conically tapered op…
We demonstrate a three-dimensional (3D) optical diffraction tomographic technique with optimal frequency combination (OFC-ODT) for the 3D quantitative phase imaging of unlabeled specimens. Three sets of through-focus intensity images are captured under an annular aperture and two circular apertures with different coherence parameters. The 3D phase optical transfer functions (POTF) corresponding to different illumination apertures are combined to obtain an optimally synthesized frequency response, achieving high-quality, low-noise 3D reconstructions with imaging resolution up to the incoherent …
Aperture based scanning near field optical microscopes are important instruments to study light at the nanoscale and to understand the optical functionality of photonic nanostructures. In general, a detected image is affected by both, the transverse electric and magnetic field components of light. The discrimination of the individual field components is challenging, as these four field components are contained within two signals in the case of a polarization-resolved measurement. Here, we develop a methodology to solve the inverse imaging problem and to retrieve the vectorial field components …
Spatial effects of interference and interaction of light modes in the subwavelength part of the near-field optical microscopy probe have been theoretically studied. It was found that the mode interference can lead to higher spatial compression of light (lambda = 500 nm in free space) within the transverse size of 25 nm inside the probe output aperture of 100 nm in diameter. The results principally demonstrate the possibility of increasing spatial resolution of the near-field optical microscopy technique.
An holographic microscopy reconstruction method compatible with high numerical aperture microscope objective (MO) up to NA=1.4 is proposed. After off axis and reference field curvature corrections, and after selection of the +1 grating order holographic image, a phase mask that transforms the optical elements of the holographic setup into an afocal device is applied in the camera plane. The reconstruction is then made by the angular spectrum method. The field is first propagated in the image half space from the camera to the afocal image of the MO optimal plane (plane for which MO has been des…
We investigate - both experimentally and theoretically - the inelastic interaction between fast electrons and the electromagnetic field scattered by metallic apertures and nanostructures on dielectric membranes using photon induced near-field electron microscopy. The experiments - performed in a high brightness ultrafast transmission electron microscope - on gold apertures on silicon nitride membranes reveal strong modulations of the electron-light coupling strength. We demonstrates that this effect results from the combined action of the electric field scattered by the aperture edges and the …
For quantitative phase imaging (QPI) based on transport-of-intensity equation (TIE), partially coherent illumination provides speckle-free imaging, compatibility with brightfield microscopy, and transverse resolution beyond coherent diffraction limit. Unfortunately, in a conventional microscope with circular illumination aperture, partial coherence tends to diminish the phase contrast, exacerbating the inherent noise-to-resolution tradeoff in TIE imaging, resulting in strong low-frequency artifacts and compromised imaging resolution. Here, we demonstrate how these issues can be effectively add…
A theoretical approach to determine the optimal form of the near-field optical microscope probe is proposed. An analytical expression of the optimal probe form with subwavelength aperture has been obtained. The advantages of the probe with the optimal form are illustrated using numerical calculations. The conducted calculations show 10 times greater light throughput and the reception possibility of the more compactly localized light at the output probe aperture which could indicate better spatial resolution of the optical images in near-field optical technique using optimal probe.
Nanoscale localization of point emitters is critical to several methods in optical fluorescence microscopy, including single-molecule super-resolution imaging and tracking. While the precision of the localization procedure has been the topic of extensive study, localization accuracy has been less emphasized, in part due to the challenge of producing an experimental sample containing unperturbed point emitters at known three-dimensional positions in a relevant geometry. We report a new experimental system which reproduces a widely-adopted geometry in high-numerical aperture localization microsc…
The transport-of-intensity equation (TIE) is a well-established non-interferometric phase retrieval approach, which enables quantitative phase imaging (QPI) of transparent sample simply by measuring the intensities at multiple axially displaced planes. Nevertheless, it still suffers from two fundamentally limitations. First, it is quite susceptible to low-frequency errors (such as \cloudy" artifacts), which results from the poor contrast of the phase transfer function (PTF) near the zero frequency. Second, the reconstructed phase tends to blur under spatially low-coherent illumination, especia…
In this paper, a method for increasing the temporal resolution of a temporal imaging system has been developed. Analogously to the conventional spatial imaging systems in which resolution limit is due to the finite aperture of the lens, in a temporal imaging system, finite temporal aperture of the time lens is responsible for limited temporal resolution. Based on the method used in spatial structured illumination super-resolution microscopy in spatial optics, we have utilized time prisms, which are temporal versions of conventional prisms, to shift the illusive frequency components of the inpu…
The common assumption that precision is the limit of accuracy in localization microscopy and the typical absence of comprehensive calibration of optical microscopes lead to a widespread issue - overconfidence in measurement results with nanoscale statistical uncertainties that can be invalid due to microscale systematic errors. In this article, we report a comprehensive solution to this underappreciated problem. We develop arrays of subresolution apertures into the first reference materials that enable localization errors approaching the atomic scale across a submillimeter field. We present no…
In this paper, we describe the implementation of leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) to probe the chirality of plasmonic nanostructures. We demonstrate experimentally spin-driven directional coupling as well as vortex generation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) by nanostructures built with T-shaped and $Λ$- shaped apertures. Using this far-field method, quantitative inspections, including directivity and extinction ratio measurements, are achieved via polarization analysis in both image and Fourier planes. To support our experimental findings, we develop an analytical model based on a multi…
We use fluorescent nanospheres as scalar detectors for the electric-field intensity in order to probe the near-field of an optical tip used in aperture-type near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). Surprisingly, the recorded fluorescence images show two intensity lobes if the sphere diameter is smaller that the aperture diameter, as expected only in the case of vector detectors like single molecules. We present a simple but realistic, analytical model for the electric field created by light emitted by a NSOM tip which is quantitative agreement with the experimental data.
Label-free observation of nanoparticles by far-field optical microscopy is challenging because their ability to scatter or absorb light dramatically diminishes with decreasing size. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) imaging have shown promises and respective limitations. For instance, it is challenging to achieve diffraction-limited resolution in SPR imaging; its refractive index sensitivity is not as localized as desired. LSPR imaging is typically employed with dark-field microscopy on sparse noble metal nanostructures, leading to low light through…
We propose to use high numerical aperture single mode optical fibers like photonic crystal fiber for lensless in-line holographic microscopy. Highly divergent beam helps to overcome the spatial sampling limitation of the image sensor. In this paper, a submicron lateral resolution has been demonstrated, with an imaging sensor of pixel pitch 1.12 micrometer and a photonic crystal fiber of mode field diameter 1.8 micrometer. In earlier methods of single-shot lensless imaging, submicron resolution has been obtained at very small working distance and field of view. The proposed method improves the …
Near-field scanning optical microscopy has been an indispensable tool for designing, characterizing and understanding the functionalities of diverse nanoscale photonic devices. As the advances in fabrication technology have driven the devices smaller and smaller, the demand has grown steadily for improving its resolving power, which is determined mainly by the size of the probe attached to the scanner. The use of a smaller probe has been a straightforward approach to increase the resolving power, but it cannot be made arbitrarily small in practice due to the steep reduction of the collection e…
Optical phase-space functions describe spatial and angular information simultaneously; examples include light fields in ray optics and Wigner functions in wave optics. Measurement of phase-space enables digital refocusing, aberration removal and 3D reconstruction. High-resolution capture of 4D phase-space datasets is, however, challenging. Previous scanning approaches are slow, light inefficient and do not achieve diffraction-limited resolution. Here, we propose a multiplexed method that solves these problems. We use a spatial light modulator (SLM) in the pupil plane of a microscope in order t…
We report a highly efficient generation of singular surface plasmon (SP) field by an achiral plasmonic structure consisting of $Λ$-shaped apertures. Our quantitative analysis based on leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) demonstrates that the induced spin-orbit coupling can be tuned by adjusting the apex angle of the $Λ$-shaped aperture. Specifically, the array of $Λ$-shaped apertures with the apex angle $60^\circ$ is shown to give rise to the directional coupling efficiency. The ring of $Λ$-shaped apertures with the apex angle $60^\circ$ realized to generate the maximum extinction ratio (ER=11)…
We review our recent developments of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) that uses an active tip made of a single fluorescent nanodiamond (ND) grafted onto the apex of a substrate fiber tip. The ND hosting a limited number of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers, such a tip is a scanning quantum source of light. The method for preparing the ND-based tips and their basic properties are summarized. Then we discuss theoretically the concept of spatial resolution that is achievable in this special NSOM configuration and find it to be only limited by the scan height over the imaged system,…
We report a computational 3D microscopy technique, termed Fourier ptychographic diffraction tomography (FPDT), that iteratively stitches together numerous variably illuminated, low-resolution images acquired with a low-numerical aperture (NA) objective in 3D Fourier space to create a wide field-of-view (FOV), high-resolution, depth-resolved complex refractive index (RI) image across large volumes. Unlike conventional optical diffraction tomography (ODT) approaches that rely on controlled bright-field illumination, holographic phase measurement, and high-NA objective detection, FPDT employs tom…
Wide-field fluorescence microscopy, while much faster than confocal microscopy, suffers from a lack of optical sectioning and poor axial resolution. 3D structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has been demonstrated to provide optical sectioning and to double the achievable resolution both laterally and axially, but even with this the axial resolution is still worse than the lateral resolution of unmodified wide-field detection. Interferometric schemes using two high numerical aperture objectives, such as 4Pi confocal and I5S microscopy, have improved the axial resolution beyond that of the lat…
The use of individual multimode optical fibers in endoscopy applications has the potential to provide highly miniaturized and noninvasive probes for microscopy and optical micromanipulation. A few different strategies have been proposed recently, but they all suffer from intrinsically low resolution related to the low numerical aperture of multimode fibers. Here, we show that two-photon polymerization allows for direct fabrication of micro-optics components on the fiber end, resulting in an increase of the numerical aperture to a value that is close to 1. Coupling light into the fiber through …
Fourier light-field microscopy (FLFM) uses a micro-lens array (MLA) to segment the Fourier Plane of the microscopic objective lens to generate multiple two-dimensional perspective views, thereby reconstructing the three-dimensional(3D) structure of the sample using 3D deconvolution calculation without scanning. However, the resolution of FLFM is still limited by diffraction, and furthermore, dependent on the aperture division. In order to improve its resolution, a Super-resolution optical fluctuation Fourier light field microscopy (SOFFLFM) was proposed here, in which the Sofi method with abil…
Differential phase contrast microscopy (DPC) provides high-resolution quantitative phase distribution of thin transparent samples under multi-axis asymmetric illuminations. Typically, illumination in DPC microscopic systems is designed with 2-axis half-circle amplitude patterns, which, however, result in a non-isotropic phase contrast transfer function (PTF). Efforts have been made to achieve isotropic DPC by replacing the conventional half-circle illumination aperture with radially asymmetric patterns with 3-axis illumination or gradient amplitude patterns with 2-axis illumination. Neverthele…
Quantitative phase imaging has become a topic of considerable interest in the microscopy community. We have recently described one such technique based on the use of a partitioned detection aperture, which can be operated in a single shot with an extended source [Opt. Lett. 37, 4062 (2012)]. We follow up on this work by providing a rigorous theory of our technique using paraxial wave optics, where we derive fully three-dimensional spread functions for both phase and intensity. Using these functions we discuss methods of phase reconstruction for in- and out-of-focus samples, insensitive to weak…
We introduce a full field fluorescence imaging technique with axial confinement of about 100 nm at the sample/substrate interface. Contrary to standard surface imaging techniques, this confinement is obtained through emission filtering. This technique is based on supercritical emission selectivity. It can be implemented on any epifluorescence microscope with a commercial high numerical aperture objective and offers a real time surface imaging capability. This technique is of particular interest for live cell membrane and adhesion studies. Using HEK cells, we show that one can observe simultane…
The evaluation and monitoring of cells health in the human retina is crucial and follow time course of retinal diseases, detect lesions before irreversible visual loss and to evaluate treatment effects. Towards this goal, a major challenge is to image and quantify retinal cells in human eyes in a non-invasive manner. Despite the phenomenal advances in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Adaptive Optics systems, in vivo imaging of many of these cells is limited by the fact that cell contrast in reflection is extremely low. Here, we report on a major advance by proposing and demonstrating a r…
The generality of the Bethe's two dipole model for light diffraction through a subwavelength aperture in a conducting plane is studied in the radiation zone for coated conical fiber tips as those used in near field scanning optical microscopy. In order to describe the angular radiated power of the tip theoretically, we present a simple, analytical model for small apertures (radius < 40 nm) based on a multipole expansion. Our model is able to reproduce the available experimental results. It proves relatively insensitive to cone angle and aperture radius and contains, as a first approximation, t…
Several applications require spatial distributions of the incident electric field that maximize the electric field at a focal point for a given input power. The field distributions are derived for various optical systems in a direct way based on fundamental physical properties. The results may prove useful for a wide range of applications, e.g., microscopy, scattering experiments or excitation of single atoms. For commonly used distributions - fundamental Gaussian modes and doughnut modes - we give the upper bounds of the achievable field amplitudes.
Control of light through a microscope objective with a high numerical aperture is a common requirement in applications such as optogenetics, adaptive optics, or laser processing. Light propagation, including polarization effects, can be described under these conditions using the Debye-Wolf diffraction integral. Here, we take advantage of differentiable optimization and machine learning for efficiently optimizing the Debye-Wolf integral for such applications. For light shaping we show that this optimization approach is suitable for engineering arbitrary three-dimensional point spread functions …
Using conventional refraction-based optical lens, it is challenging to achieve both high-resolution imaging and long-working-distance condition. To increase the numerical aperture of a lens, the working distance should be compensated, and vice versa. Here we propose and demonstrate a new concept in optical microscopy that can achieve both high-resolution imaging and long-working-distance conditions by utilising a scattering layer instead of refractive optics. When light passes through a scattering layer, it creates a unique interference pattern. To retrieve the complex amplitude image from the…
When focusing a light beam at high numerical aperture, the resulting electric field profile in the focal plane depends on the transverse polarisation profile, as interference between different parts of the beam needs to be taken into account. It is well known that radial polarised light produces a longitudinal polarisation component and can be focused below the conventional diffraction limit for homogeneously polarised light, and azimuthally polarised light that carries one unit of angular momentum can achieve even tighter focal spots. This is of interest for example for enhancing resolution i…
We present a plenoptic microscopy configuration for 3D snapshot imaging, which is dual telecentric and can directly record true projection images corresponding with different viewing angles. It also allows blocking high-angle stray rays without sacrificing the light collection efficiency. This configuration named as snapshot projection optical tomography (SPOT) arranges an objective lens and a microlens array (MLA) in a 4-f telecentric configuration and places an aperture stop at the back focal plane of a relay lens. We develop a forward imaging model for SPOT, which can also be applied to exi…
