Basic coherent diffraction imaging methods strongly rely on having a highly coherent illumination in order to reconstruct the phase accurately. However, regardless of considering the turbulent transport medium, the instability of the system or the generation mechanism of the light source, partially coherent illumination is more common in real case. In this paper, we proposed an efficient microscopic phase imaging method to study normal and abnormal cervical exfoliated cells. By applying three phase modulations in a single point of the sample's transmitted field, the phase can be retrieved with correspoding three intensities under partially coherent illumination. Compared with intensity map, we can efficiently and clearly judge the proportion of high density shrinking abnormal cells from the phase distributions, which provides a confident analysis and evaluation basis for early medical diagnosis of cervical cancer. This study also has potential applications in noninvasive optical imaging of dynamic biological tissues.
Lighting , Optical Imaging
Diffractive shearing interferometry (DSI) is a method that has recently been developed to perform lensless imaging using extreme ultraviolet radiation generated by high-harmonic generation. In this paper, we investigate the uniqueness of the DSI solution and the requirements for the support constraint size. We find that there can be multiple solutions to the DSI problem that consist of displaced copies of the actual object. These alternative solutions can be eliminated by enforcing a sufficiently tight support constraint, or by introducing additional synthetic constraints. We furthermore propose a new DSI algorithm inspired by the analogy with coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) algorithms: the original DSI algorithm is in a way analogous to the hybrid input-output algorithm as used in CDI, and we propose a new algorithm that is more analogous to the error reduction algorithm as used in CDI. We find that the newly proposed algorithm is suitable for final refinement of the reconstruction.
We report on a method that allows microscopic image reconstruction from extreme-ultraviolet diffraction patterns without the need for object support constraints or other prior knowledge about the object structure. This is achieved by introducing additional diversity through rotation of an object in a rotationally asymmetric probe beam, produced by the spatial interference between two phase-coherent high-harmonic beams. With this rotational diffractive shearing interferometry method, we demonstrate robust image reconstruction of microscopic objects at wavelengths around 30 nm, using images recorded at only three to five different object rotations.
Optical angular momenta (AM) have attracted tremendous research interest in recent years. In this paper we theoretically investigate the electromagnetic field and angular momentum properties of tightly focused arbitrary cylindrical vortex vector (CVV) input beams. An absorptive particle is placed in focused CVV fields to analyze the optical torques. The spin-orbit motions of the particle can be predicted and controlled when the influences of different parameters, such as the topological charge, the polarization and the initial phases, are taken into account. These findings will be helpful in optical beam shaping, optical spin-orbit interaction and practical optical manipulation.
Ptychography, a form of Coherent Diffractive Imaging, is used with short wavelengths (e.g. X-rays, electron beams) to achieve high-resolution image reconstructions. One of the limiting factors for the reconstruction quality is the accurate knowledge of the illumination probe positions. Recently, many advances have been made to relax the requirement for the probe positions accuracy. Here, we analyse and demonstrate a straightforward approach that can be used to correct the probe positions with sub-pixel accuracy. Simulations and experimental results with visible light are presented in this work.
A novel non-iterative phase retrieval method is proposed and demonstrated with a proof-of-principle experiment. The method uses a fixed specially designed mask and through-focus intensity measurements. It is demonstrated that this method is robust to spatial partial coherence in the illumination, making it suitable for coherent diffractive imaging using spatially partially coherent light, as well as for coherence characterization.
A noise-robust extension of iterative phase retrieval algorithms that does not need to assume a noise model is proposed. It works by adapting the intensity constraints using the reconstructed object. Using a proof-of-principle ptychographic experiment with visible light and a spatial light modulator to create an object, the proposed method is tested and it compares favorably to the Extended Ptychographic Iterative Engine (ePIE) with reduced step size. The method is general, so it can also be applied to other iterative reconstruction schemes such as phase retrieval using focus variation.
Coherent Fourier scatterometry is an optical metrology technique that utilizes the measured intensity of the scattered optical field to reconstruct certain parameters of test structures written on a wafer with nano-scale accuracy. The intensity of the scattered field is recorded with a camera and this information is used to retrieve the grating parameters. To improve sensitivity in the parameter reconstruction, the phase of the scattered field can also be acquired. Interferometry can be used for this purpose, but with the cost of cumbersomeness. In this paper, we show that iterative phase retrieval methods can be applied to retrieve the scattered complex fields from only intensity measurement data. We show that the accuracy of the retrieved complex fields using phase retrieval is comparable to that measured directly using interferometry.
We report on a novel non-iterative phase retrieval method with which the complex-valued transmission function of an object can be retrieved with a non-iterative computation, with a limited number of intensity measurements. The measurements are taken in either real space or Fourier space, and for each measurement the phase in its dual space is modulated according to a single optical parameter. The requirement found for the phase modulation function is a general one, which therefore allows for plenty of customization in this method. It is shown that quantitative Zernike phase contrast imaging is one special case of this general method. With simulations we investigate the sampling requirements for a microscopy setup and for a Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI) setup.
In this article we combine the well-known Ptychographical Iterative Engine (PIE) with the Hybrid Input-Output (HIO) algorithm. The important insight is that the HIO feedback function should be kept strictly separate from the reconstructed object, which is done by introducing a separate feedback function per probe position. We have also combined HIO with floating PIE (fPIE) and extended PIE (ePIE). Simulations indicate that the combined algorithm performs significantly better in many situations. Although we have limited our research to a combination with HIO, the same insight can be used to combine ptychographical algorithms with any phase retrieval algorithm that uses a feedback function.
In several optical systems, a specific Point Spread Function (PSF) needs to be generated. This can be achieved by shaping the complex field at the pupil. The Extended Nijboer-Zernike (ENZ) theory relates complex Zernike modes on the pupil directly to functions in the focal region. In this paper, we introduce a method to engineer a PSF using the ENZ theory. In particular, we present an optimization algorithm to design an extended depth of focus with high lateral resolution, while keeping the transmission of light high (over 60%). We also have demonstrated three outcomes of the algorithm using a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM).
Algorithms , Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/instrumentation , Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/methods , Lenses , Models, Theoretical , Computer Simulation , Light , Scattering, Radiation
