Broadband quantitative phase microscopy with extended field of view using off-axis interferometric multiplexing

Abstract

We propose a new portable imaging configuration that can double the field of view (FOV) of existing off-axis interferometric imaging setups, including broadband off-axis interferometers. This configuration is attached at the output port of the off-axis interferometer and optically creates a multiplexed interferogram on the digital camera, which is composed of two off-axis interferograms with straight fringes at orthogonal directions. Each of these interferograms contains a different FOV of the imaged sample. Due to the separation of these two FOVs in the spatial-frequency domain, they can be fully reconstructed separately, while obtaining two complex wavefronts from the sample at once. Since the optically multiplexed off-axis interferogram is recorded by the camera in a single exposure, fast dynamics can be recorded with a doubled imaging area. We used this technique for quantitative phase microscopy of biological samples with extended FOV. We demonstrate attaching the proposed module to a diffractive phase microscopy interferometer, illuminated by a broadband light source. The biological samples used for the experimental demonstrations include microscopic diatom shells, cancer cells, and flowing blood cells.