Efficient multifocal structured illumination microscopy utilizing a spatial light modulator

Abstract

We demonstrated an efficient system for multifocal structured illumination microscopy (MSIM) utilizing a spatial light modulator (SLM). Nine phase profiles of chessboard phase plates loaded on the SLM in sequence are used to generate nine multifocal arrays on the focal plane. Subsequently, nine raw multifocal images are acquired. Finally, by extracting the parameters of the illumination patterns from the raw images precisely, a final super-resolved image is reconstructed by performing the standard reconstruction procedure of structured illumination microscopy (SIM). Our MSIM system realized nearly a 1.5-fold enhancement in spatial resolution compared with wide-field (WF) microscopy. The feasibility of the present system is validated on experiments and the results show its great performances along with good compatibility.