High-quality multi-wavelength lensfree microscopy based on nonlinear optimization

In multi-wavelength lensfree microscopy (MWLM), a laser source is usually replaced with a light-emitting diode for a low-cost and portable configuration. However, the trade-off between noise suppression and resolution enhancement puts a challenging issue for high-quality imaging. Here we propose a noise-robust mull-wavelength phase retrieval to increase the stability of MWLM. To solve the inverse problem of phase retrieval, we derive an optimization procedure to iteratively minimize the data fidelity and impose a total variation term for noise suppression. The experimental results of resolution target, stained human goblet cell, and label-free microglia cell demonstrate that our method could hold a better noise tolerance without the loss of imaging resolution. We believe that our method will become a powerful tool for a resources-limited scene.

Automated summary

A noise-robust multi-wavelength phase retrieval method was proposed to enhance the stability of MWLM, with an optimization procedure to iteratively minimize data fidelity and suppress noise. Experimental results showed better noise tolerance without loss of imaging resolution, making it a powerful tool for resource-limited scenarios.