High-speed phase-shifting common-path quantitative phase imaging with a piezoelectric actuator

Abstract

© 2016 The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. We present a phase-shifting quantitative phase imaging technique providing high temporal and spatial phase stability and high acquisition speed. A piezoelectric microfabricated phase modulator allows tunable modulation frequencies up to the kHz range. After assessing the quantitative phase accuracy with technical samples, we demonstrate the high acquisition rate while monitoring cellular processes at temporal scales ranging from milliseconds to hours.