Single‐shot differential phase contrast microscopy using ring‐shaped polarisation multiplexing illumination

Abstract

We propose a differential phase contrast microscopy that enables single‐shot phase imaging for unstained biological samples. The proposed approach employs a ring‐shaped LED array for polarisation multiplexing illumination and a polarisation camera for image acquisition. As such, multiple images of different polarisation angles can be simultaneously captured with a single shot. Through polarisation demultiplexing, the sample phase can therefore be recovered from the single‐shot measurement. Both simulations and experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. We also demonstrate that ring‐shaped illumination enables higher contrast and lower‐distortion imaging results than disk‐shaped illumination does. The proposed single‐shot approach potentially enables phase contrast imaging for live cell samples in vitro.Lay Description: We propose a microscopy that enables imaging of transparent samples, unstained cells, etc. We demonstrate that the proposed method enables higher contrast and lower‐distortion imaging results than conventional methods, and significantly improves imaging efficiency. The proposed method potentially enables dynamic imaging for live cell samples in vitro.