Fast measurements of concentration profiles inside deformable objects in microflows with reduced spatial coherence digital holography

We investigate the use of a digital holographic microscope working with partially coherent spatial illumination to study concentration profiles inside confined deformable bodies flowing in microchannels. The studied phenomenon is rapidly changing in time and requires the recording of the complete holographic information for every frame. For this purpose, we implemented one of the classical methods of off-axis digital holography: the Fourier method. Digital holography allows one to numerically investigate a volume by refocusing the different planes of depth, allowing one to locate the objects under investigation in three dimensions. Furthermore, the phase is directly related to the refractive index, thus to the concentration inside the body. Based on simple symmetry assumptions, we present an original method for determining the concentration profiles inside deformable objects in microconfined flows. Details of the optical and numerical implementation, as well as exemplative experimental results are presented, (C) 2008 Optical Society of America