Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Microscopy: Computed imaging for scanned coherent microscopy

Three-dimensional image formation in microscopy is greatly enhanced by the use of computed imaging techniques. In particular, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Microscopy (ISAM) allows the removal of out-of-focus blur in broadband, coherent microscopy. Earlier methods, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), utilize interferometric ranging, but do not apply computed imaging methods and therefore must scan the focal depth to acquire extended volumetric images. ISAM removes the need to scan the focus by allowing volumetric image reconstruction from data collected at a single focal depth. ISAM signal processing techniques are similar to the Fourier migration methods of seismology and the Fourier reconstruction methods of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). In this article ISAM is described and the close ties between ISAM and SAR are explored. ISAM and a simple strip-map SAR system are placed in a common mathematical framework and compared to OCT and radar respectively. This article is intended to serve as a review of ISAM, and will be especially useful to readers with a background in SAR.