Single capture bright field and off-axis digital holographic microscopy

We report on a single capture approach for simultaneous incoherent bright field (BF) and laser-based quantitative phase imaging (QPI). Common-path digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is implemented in parallel with BF imaging within the optical path of a commercial optical microscope to achieve spatially multiplexed recording of white light images and digital off-axis holograms, which are subsequently numerically demultiplexed. The performance of the proposed multimodal concept is firstly determined by investigations on microspheres. Then, the application for label-free dual-mode QPI and BF imaging of living pancreatic tumor cells is demonstrated.(c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

We present a novel single capture approach for simultaneous incoherent bright field (BF) and laser-based quantitative phase imaging (QPI). By implementing common-path digital holographic microscopy (DHM) in parallel with BF imaging within the optical path of a commercial optical microscope, we achieve spatially multiplexed recording of white light images and digital off-axis holograms, which are subsequently numerically demultiplexed. The performance of this multimodal concept is evaluated using microspheres and demonstrated for label-free dual-mode QPI and BF imaging of living pancreatic tumor cells.