Optimization of structured illumination microscopy with designing and rotating a grid pattern using a spatial light modulator

Abstract

© The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. Our structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is based on a spatial light modulator (SLM) instead of an illumination mask, which does not need to be attached to a linear stage. This SIM can easily design the period of the one-dimensional grid related to the optical sectioning strength and can rapidly acquire three-dimensional data. The optimization of SIM with an SLM is proposed. Previous studies primarily varied magnification with a high numerical aperture objective to optimize the axial response. It is feasible to obtain the maximum optical sectioning strength by designing a grid pattern that has an appropriately high spatial frequency and to uniformly cover the entire frequency spectrum of the sample by rotating a grid pattern. We have successfully optimized SIM with such a grid and covered the frequency spectrum by rotating a grid pattern in multiple orientations.