Single-shot quantitative phase imaging with phase modulation of a liquid crystal spatial light modulator under white illumination

We propose a novel, to the best of our knowledge, single-shot quantitative phase imaging (QPI) technique with the phase modulation of a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) under white light illumination. By studying the phase modulation characteristics of an LC-SLM under white light illumination, images captured at different wavelengths are equivalent to those captured at different defocus distances when loading a Fresnel lens pattern on the LC-SLM. Con-sequently, a color camera is able to simultaneously acquire multi-intensity images at different defocus distances. Finally, the phase is retrieved from a single-shot color image using the transport of intensity equation. To demonstrate the flexibil-ity and accuracy of our method, a photoetched phase object and human red blood cells are quantitatively measured. An investigation of living yeast cells is conducted to verify the dynamic measurement capability. The proposed method provides a simple, efficient, and flexible means to accomplish real-time high-resolution quantitative phase imaging with-out sacrificing the field of view (FOV), which can be further integrated into a conventional microscope to achieve real-time microscopic QPI. (c) 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

We propose a novel single-shot quantitative phase imaging technique using a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) under white light illumination. By studying the phase modulation characteristics of an LC-SLM under white light illumination, images captured at different wavelengths are equivalent to those captured at different defocus distances. The phase is retrieved from a single-shot color image using the transport of intensity equation. The proposed method shows flexibility and accuracy in quantitative phase imaging of various samples.