Dynamic speckle illumination microscopy with translated versus randomized speckle patterns

Dynamic speckle illumination (DSI) microscopy is a widefield fluorescence imaging technique that provides depth discrimination. The technique relies on the illumination of a sample with a sequence of speckle patterns. We consider an image processing algorithm based on a differential intensity variance between consecutive images, and demonstrate that DSI sectioning strength depends on the dynamics of the speckle pattern. Translated speckle patterns confer greater sectioning strength than randomized speckle patterns because they retain out-of-focus correlations that lead to better background rejection. We present a theory valid for arbitrary point-spread-functions, which we corroborate with experimental results. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America