Chromatic aberration correction based on cross-channel information alignment in microscopy

A microscope usually consists of dozens of complex lenses and requires careful assembly, alignment, and testing before use. Chromatic aberration correction is a significant step in the design of microscopes. Reducing chromatic aberration by improving optical design will inevitably increase the overall weight and size of the microscope, lead-ing to more cost in manufacturing and maintenance. Nevertheless, the improvement in hardware can only achieve limited correction. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on cross-channel information alignment to shift some of the correction tasks from optical design to post-processing. Additionally, a quantitative framework is established to evaluate the performance of the chromatic aberration algorithm. Our algorithm outperforms the other state-of-the-art methods in both visual appearance and objective assessments. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively obtain higher-quality images without changing the hardware or engaging the optical parameters. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

A microscope requires careful assembly, alignment, and testing due to its complex lenses. Chromatic aberration correction is important but can increase weight and cost. However, this paper proposes an algorithm that shifts some correction tasks to post-processing, achieving higher-quality images without changing hardware or optical parameters.