This article presents an overview of recent advances in the field of digital holography, ranging from holographic techniques designed to increase the resolution of microscopic images, holographic imaging using incoherent illumination, phase retrieval with incoherent illumination, imaging of occluded objects, and the holographic recording of depth-extended objects using a frequency-comb laser, to the design of an infrastructure for remote laboratories for digital-holographic microscopy and metrology. The paper refers to current trends in digital holography and explains them using new results that were recently achieved at the Institute for Applied Optics of the University Stuttgart.

Scattering media, such as diffused glass and biological tissue, are usually treated as obstacles in imaging. To cope with the random phase introduced by a turbid medium, most existing imaging techniques recourse to either phase compensation by optical means or phase recovery using iterative algorithms, and their applications are often limited to two-dimensional imaging. In contrast, we utilize the scattering medium as an unconventional imaging lens and exploit its lens-like properties for lensless three-dimensional (3D) imaging with diffraction-limited resolution. Our spatially incoherent lensless imaging technique is simple and capable of variable focusing with adjustable depths of focus that enables depth sensing of 3D objects that are concealed by the diffusing medium. Wide-field imaging with diffraction-limited resolution is verified experimentally by a single-shot recording of the 1951 USAF resolution test chart, and 3D imaging and depth sensing are demonstrated by shifting focus over axially separated objects.

Retrieving the information about the object hidden around a corner or obscured by a diffused surface has a vast range of applications. Over the time many techniques have been tried to make this goal realizable. Here, we are presenting yet another approach to retrieve a 3-D object from the scattered field using digital holography with statistical averaging. The methods are simple, easy to implement and allow fast image reconstruction because they do not require phase correction, complicated image processing, scanning of the object or any kind of wave shaping. The methods inherit the merit of digital holography that the micro deformation and displacement of the hidden object can also be detected.

Scattering media have always been looked upon as an obstacle in imaging. Various methods, ranging from holography to phase compensation as well as to correlation techniques, have been proposed to cope with this obstacle. We, on the other hand, have a different understanding about the role of the diffusing media. In this paper we propose and demonstrate a ‘scatter-plate microscope’ that utilizes the diffusing property of the random medium for imaging micro structures with diffraction-limited resolution. The ubiquitous property of the speckle patterns permits to exploit the scattering medium as an ultra-thin lensless microscope objective with a variable focal length and a large working distance. The method provides a light, flexible and cost effective imaging device as an alternative to conventional microscope objectives. In principle, the technique is also applicable to lensless imaging in UV and X-ray microscopy. Experiments were performed with visible light to demonstrate the microscopic imaging of USAF resolution test target and a biological sample with varying numerical aperture (NA) and magnifications.

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