Digital holographic microscopy working with a partially spatial coherent source

Abstract

We investigate the use of partially spatial coherent illuminations for digital holographic microscopes (DHMs) working in transmission. Depending on the application requirements, the sources are made from a spatially filtered LED or from a decorrelated laser beam. The benefits gained with those sources are indicated. A major advantage is the drastic reduction of the speckle noise making possible high image quality and the proper emulation of phase contrast modes such as differential interference contrast (DIC). For biomedical applications, the DHMs are coupled with fluorescence sources to achieve multimodal diagnostics. Several implementations of biomedical applications where digital holography is a significant improvement are described. With a fast DHM permitting the analysis of dynamical phenomena, several applications in fluid physics and biomedical applications are also provided. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.