Principles and techniques of digital holographic microscopy

Abstract

Abstract. Digital holography is an emerging field of new paradigm in general imaging applications. We present a review of a subset of the research and development activities in digital holography, with emphasis on microscopy techniques and applications. First, the basic results from the general theory of holography, based on the scalar diffraction theory, are summarized, and a general description of the digital holographic microscopy process is given, including quantitative phase microscopy. Several numerical diffraction methods are described and compared, and a number of representative configurations used in digital holography are described, including off-axis Fresnel, Fourier, image plane, in-line, Gabor, and phase-shifting digital holographies. Then we survey numerical techniques that give rise to unique capabilities of digital holography, including suppression of dc and twin image terms, pixel resolution control, optical phase unwrapping, aberration compensation, and others. A survey is also given of representative application areas, including biomedical microscopy, particle field holography, micrometrology, and holographic tomography, as well as some of the special techniques, such as holography of total internal reflection, optical scanning holography, digital interference holography, and heterodyne holography. The review is intended for students and new researchers interested in developing new techniques and exploring new applications of digital holography. C 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Quantitative Phase Imaging for Label-Free Analysis of Cancer Cells—Focus on Digital Holographic Microscopy

“…QPI measures the path-length shifts associated with the dry mass of the specimen [4][5][6]67,90,91]. The elimination of the contrast agent removes one cause of sample variability as the sample is observed directly.…”

“…Using QPI, studies associated with both thickness and refractive index fluctuations can be performed [4]. Previous work has been reviewed by Kemper et al, who described new ways of monitoring the cellular morphology changes in response to drugs [5], and by Kim et al who presented a review of digital holography (DH), with emphasis on microscopy techniques and applications [6].…”

Computational optical coherence tomography [Invited]

“…As there is a close connection between SAR and holography [88], it has also been recognized that an SD-OCT system, in principle, is performing digital holographic tomography synthesized by a series of wavenumbers, despite the detector being in the imaging or Fourier/Fresnel plane [72,[89][90][91][92]. This can also be mathematically understood from the forward model.…”

Holography: The Usefulness of Digital Holographic Microscopy for Clinical Diagnostics

“…One of the beams, the reference beam, will remain undisturbed, while the other, the object beam, will be shifted in phase by the sample. The optical set-up can be either transmissive or reflective, providing no difference in the principle only in the configuration of the optical elements [16]. When the object beam has traveled through or been reflected by the object, the two beams merge.…”