Optical tweezers of programmable shape with transverse scattering forces

We propose a non-holographic method to create line traps of arbitrary shape in the sample plane. Setting the phase gradient along theses lines gives control over the transverse forces acting on the confined particles. Phase structures, displayed on a spatial light modulator, are optically processed by a spiral phase filter and imaged onto the object plane of a microscope objective. The resulting bright line structures can be used to trap microparticles. Additionally, they exert transverse scattering forces, which can be exploited for inducing orbital motions or for creating “attracting” or “repelling” points, respectively. We give theoretical and experimental evidence that these scattering forces are proportional to the curvature of the line tweezers.     

Selective edge enhancement in three-dimensional vortex imaging with incoherent light

We demonstrate a new imaging method enabling a selective edge contrast enhancement of three-dimensional amplitude objects with spatially incoherent light. The imaging process is achieved in a spiral modification of Fresnel incoherent correlation holography and uses a vortex impulse response function. The correlation recordings of the object are acquired in a one-way interferometer with the wavefront division carried out by a spatial light modulator. Two different methods based on applying a helical reference wave in the hologram recording and a digital spiral phase modulation in image reconstruction are proposed for edge enhancement of amplitude objects. Results of both isotropic and anisotropic spiral imaging are demonstrated in experiments using an LED as an incoherent source of light.     

What spatial light modulators can do for optical microscopy

With the availability of high‐resolution miniature spatial light modulators (SLMs) new methods in optical microscopy have become feasible. The SLMs discussed in this review consist of miniature liquid crystal displays with micron‐sized pixels that can modulate the phase and/or amplitude of an optical wavefront. In microscopy they can be used to control and shape the sample illumination, or they can act as spatial Fourier filters in the imaging path. Some of these applications are reviewed in this article. One of them, called spiral phase contrast, generates isotropic edge enhancement of thin phase samples or spiral‐shaped interference fringes for thicker phase samples, which can be used to reconstruct the phase topography from a single on‐axis interferogram. If SLMs are used for both illumination control and spatial Fourier filtering, this combination for instance allows for the generalization of the Zernike phase contrast principle. The new SLM‐based approach improves the effective resolution and avoids some shortcomings and artifacts of the traditional method. The main advantage of SLMs in microscopy is their flexibility, as one can realize various operation modes in the same setup, without the need for changing any hardware components, simply by electronically switching the phase pattern displayed on the SLMs.     

Edge enhancement of phase objects through complex media by using transmission-matrix-based spiral phase contrast imaging

The wavefront shaping based technique has been introduced to detect the edges of amplitude objects through complex media, but the extraction of the boundary information of invisible phase objects through complex media has not been demonstrated yet. Here, we present a phase contrast imaging technique to overcome the scattering, aiming to achieve the edge detection of the phase object through the complex media. An operator based on the experimentally measured transmission matrix is obtained by numerically adding a spiral phase in the Fourier domain. With the inverse of the filtered transmission matrix, we can directly reconstruct the edge enhanced images for both amplitude object and phase object beyond scattering. Experimentally, both digital and real objects are imaged, and the results verify that isotropic edge detection can be achieved with our technique. Our work could benefit the detection of invisible phase objects through complex media.     

Extended field of view soft x-ray Fourier transform holography: toward imaging ultrafast evolution in a single shot

Panoramic full-field imaging is demonstrated by applying spatial multiplexing to Fourier transform holography. Multiple object and reference waves extend the effective field of view for lensless imaging without compromising the spatial resolution. In this way, local regions of interest distributed throughout a sample can be simultaneously imaged with high spatial resolution. A method is proposed for capturing multiple ultrafast images of a sample with a single x-ray pulse.     

基于螺旋相位调制的非相干全息点扩散函数研究

分析了菲涅耳非相干相关全息(Fresnel incoherent correlation holography,FINCH)系统中纯相位空间光调制器(spatial light modulator,SLM)加载螺旋相位掩模时的点扩散函数.以氙灯为照明光源搭建了FINCH系统,电荷耦合器记录的点源全息图与点扩散函数模拟结果一致.采用该系统分别在SLM上加载双透镜掩模和螺旋相位调制双透镜掩模两种情况下对分辨率板和非染色洋葱细胞成像,给出了成像对比结果.结果表明:采用螺旋相位调制的FINCH系统可以在几乎不牺牲分辨率的情况下提高图像的边缘对比度;同样,对相位物体也可以实现图像的边缘提取和识别.该方法在实时监测活细胞的分裂、形变等方面具有重要应用前景.     

Quantitative phase retrieval in X‐ray Zernike phase contrast microscopy

In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to X‐ray phase contrast imaging, since it can provide high‐contrast images by using phase variations. Among the different existing techniques, Zernike phase contrast microscopy is one of the most popular phase‐sensitive techniques for investigating the fine structure of the sample at high spatial resolution. In X‐ray Zernike phase contrast microscopy, the image contrast is indeed a mixture of absorption and phase contrast. Therefore, this technique just provides qualitative information on the object, which makes the interpretation of the image difficult. In this contribution, an approach is proposed for quantitative phase retrieval in X‐ray Zernike phase contrast microscopy. By shifting the phase of the direct light by π/2 and 3π/2, two images of the same object are measured successively. The phase information of the object can then be quantitatively retrieved by a proper combination of the measured images. Numerical experiments were carried out and the results confirmed the feasibility of the proposed method. It is expected that the proposed method will find widespread applications in biology, materials science and so on.     

Flexible contrast for low-coherence interference microscopy by Fourier-plane filtering with a spatial light modulator

We propose a full-field low-coherence interference (LCI) microscope that can provide different contrast modes using Fourier-plane filtering by means of a spatial light modulator. By altering the phase and spatial frequencies of the backreflected wavefront from the sample arm of the interferometer, we are able to change the contrast in the depth-resolved LCI images. We demonstrate that different types of contrast modes, such as, e.g., spiral phase contrast, can successfully be emulated to provide specific enhancement of internal structures and edges and to reveal complementary details within the samples under investigation.     

Characterization of axially tilted fibres utilizing a single-shot interference pattern

We proposed a method to solve the problem of extracting meaningful phase information for a single-shot interference pattern taken for an axially tilted fibre sample. Conventionally such interference patterns can be not evaluated with appropriate accuracy. Here, such an interference pattern is considered to be a special hologram since it contains information about light propagated through a laterally fixed sample located at different axial planes. Thus, part of the test object in such a hologram is in focus and the other parts are out of focus. The proposed method can be considered as two complementary steps. In the first step the complex amplitude across the hologram plane is recovered using an adaptive spatial carrier frequency method. This is followed by the second step where the complex amplitude is numerically propagated within a given volume. Thus, planes where the test object is in focus are defined. Consequently, the phase distributions corresponding to all of these planes are together stitched. Thus a complete focus phase map for the fiber sample under test is obtained. From the obtained phase map the two dimensions refractive and the two dimensions birefringence of isotactic polypropylene fibre were calculated.     

Transmission incoherent ultrasonic imaging of planar objects

A method of obtaining an ultrasonic image of a planar object with spatial variable transparency is proposed on the basis of the results of measuring the amplitude of the ultrasonic wave during the transmission ultrasonic probing. The case is considered in which the wave diffraction strongly affects the amplitude of the field behind the object and the phase is not measured. Even in the absence of phase information, this method allows one to restore the transparency masks of the planar object. The proposed mathematical apparatus can be also used in radio wave probing. Numerical simulation and processing of the experimental data demonstrated the comparability of this method and the aperture synthesis method using the phase information.     

平板式螺旋相位板的设计与应用

传统的螺旋相位板是一种利用沿方位角方向介质材料高度递增实现对光束相位调控产生涡旋光束的光学器件,由于这种特殊的几何结构特征使其不能通过相位板的叠加而调控出射光束所携带的角量子数.本文基于坐标变换方法将介质材料沿方位角方向折射率不变而高度递增的传统螺旋相位板变换为一种介质材料沿方位角方向高度不变而折射率递增的平板式螺旋相位板.通过理论分析与数值模拟,发现本文所设计的平板式螺旋相位板不仅与传统螺旋相位板一样能够产生高质量的涡旋光束,而且平板式螺旋相位板的高度和涡旋光束携带的角量子数可以根据介质材料的折射率选取而任意调节.为了实际应用的需要,可以通过叠加多层平板式螺旋相位板以获得不同角量子数的涡旋光束.这种平板式螺旋相位板在光传输、光通信等领域具有广阔的潜在应用价值.     

Passive ranging and a three-dimensional imaging system through wavefront coding

A single-image passive ranging and three-dimensional(3 D) imaging system with chiral phase encoding was proposed in 2011 [Opt. Lett. 36, 115(2011)]. A new theoretical analysis of the system in space domain is presented in this paper. We deduce the analytic relationships between the object distance and the point spread function, and between the object distance and the encoded image, respectively. Both the point spread function and the processed spectrum of the encoded image have two spots, which will rotate with the variation of the object distance. Then the depth map is extracted from the encoded image and it can be used to set up 3 D images. The theoretical analysis is verified by a wavefront coding system with a chiral phase which is generated by a phase-only liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. The phase generated by the liquid-crystal spatial light modulator is more flexible than the fixed phase mask and can be adjusted in real time. It is especially suitable for observing the object with a large depth of field.     

A spatial domain constraint iterative phase retrieval method for the propagation based X ray phase contrast imaging

Based on the propagation X ray phase contrast imaging theory, a spatial domain constraint iterative phase retrieval method is described in detail. This algorithm limits the object spatial domain according to the actual sample size firstly, and modify the image plane data with the actual test data, then the iteration can be terminated until iteration precision or the number of iterations meet the preset requirements. Finally the numerical simulation is made to evaluate the rapid phase retrieval algorithm performance, and a real column fiber material experiment is carried out using a micro focus X ray phase contrast imaging experiment platform, the phase distribution image of the column fiber is calculated out by this algorithm. The results show that this phase retrieval algorithm is effective, and the method has a potential stability and accuracy for X ray phase contrast imaging technology.     

相位解码的时-空重建算法

基于相位映射的三维传感技术对几何形状和拓扑结构复杂或表面梯度很大的物体进行绝对相位测量及相位重建仍然是一个困难的问题。近年来国际上提出了一种时间维度相位重建算法可以对此提供一种解决方案。然而,该算法对结构光照明系统提出了很高的要求,当系统无法满足算法要求时,重建结果存在严重的噪声。针对这一问题,提出了一种利用分段函数构造的相位解码的时空重建算法。该算法在相位重建过程中同时考虑时间维度和空间维度相位的相对关系,使得空间频率非严格按指数增长的条纹序列可以得到正确的重建,消除了跳变边界的相位模糊问题,从而可以更加有效地解决深度表面不连续和存在相互孤立物表面拓扑结构的景物相位重建问题。实验结果证明了此算法的可行性和有效性。     

基于空间光调制器的非相干数字全息单次曝光研究

菲涅耳非相干相关全息术(Fresnel incoherent correlation holography,FINCH)利用在空间光调制器(spatial light modulator,SLM)上加载双透镜模式对同一物点光分束自相干,并通过改变加载的相位因子得到不同的相移全息图.本系统利用SLM可分区编码调制特性,将FINCH成像中SLM上分三次加载的0°,120°,240°相位双透镜掩模各提取1/3组成一幅复合相移模式加载,并研究了三种相位分布方式对FINCH成像质量的影响.结果表明:三个相位在SLM上分布间隔越大,再现像越清晰.在此基础上,提出了一种新的掩模加载方式,在SLM加载透镜阵列,每一个相位因子对应一个双透镜,具有一个光轴.实验表明,通过这种加载方式,通过SLM后形成的三个相移图能够一次在电荷耦合器上记录,并且三个相移图不重叠,然后通过MATLAB编程计算将不同相移角度的全息图分别提取出来,通过三步相移计算合成一幅包含有物光波的复值全息图,最后通过数值再现算法重建待测样品.此系统可用于对光源相干性较低的实时成像系统,也为微小形变测量、动态物体的观测提供了新方法,为非相干数字全息术的发展提供了新思路.     

X射线衍射增强成像中吸收、折射以及散射衬度的计算层析

X射线相位衬度成像是一种新型的X射线成像技术,通过记录射线穿过物体后相位的改变对物体进行成像,可以提供比传统的X射线吸收成像更高的图像衬度以及空间分辨力。衍射增强成像方法(Diffraction enhancedimaging,DEI)是X射线相位衬度成像方法之一,利用一块放置在物体和探测器之间的分析晶体提取物体的吸收、折射以及散射信息并进行成像。将衍射增强成像方法与计算机断层成像技术(Computerized Tomography)进行结合,利用吸收、散射以及折射信息,分别采用滤波反投影以及雷登(Radon)变换,对昆虫样品——蜜蜂进行计算层析重建,获得了好于X射线吸收计算层析的重建结果,验证了衍射增强成像信息分离计算层析的优越性。     

Common-path phase-shifting lensless holographic microscopy

We present an approach capable of high-NA imaging in a lensless digital in-line holographic microscopy layout even outside the Gabor's regime. The method is based on spatial multiplexing at the sample plane, allowing a common-path interferometric architecture, where two interferometric beams are generated by a spatial light modulator (SLM) prior to illuminating the sample. The SLM allows phase-shifting interferometry by phase modulation of the SLM diffracted beam. After proper digital processing, the complex amplitude distribution of the diffracted object wavefront is recovered and numerically propagated to image the sample. Experimental results are reported that validate the proposed method.     

Spiral magnetic structure in non-Heisenberg magnets with an easy-axis anisotropy

The investigations performed in this work have demonstrated that an easy-axis frustrated non-Heisenberg magnet can contain homogeneous phases with the vector (ferromagnetic) and tensor (nematic) orderings, as well as a spatially inhomogeneous phase of the magnetic spiral type. Depending on the relationships between the material parameters, either a ferromagnetic spiral or a spiral of the quadrupole–ferromagnetic type with different periods of the spiral structures can be formed in the system. The phase diagram of the system has been constructed.     

Multiple Spatial Coherence Resonances and Spatial Patterns in a Noise-Driven Heterogeneous Neuronal Network

Heterogeneity of the neurons and noise are inevitable in the real neuronal network. In this paper, Gaussian white noise induced spatial patterns including spiral waves and multiple spatial coherence resonances are studied in a network composed of Morris-Lecar neurons with heterogeneity characterized by parameter diversity. The relationship between the resonances and the transitions between ordered spiral waves and disordered spatial patterns are achieved. When parameter diversity is introduced, the maxima of multiple resonances increases first, and then decreases as diversity strength increases, which implies that the coherence degrees induced by noise are enhanced at an intermediate diversity strength. The synchronization degree of spatial patterns including ordered spiral waves and disordered patterns is identified to be a very low level. The results suggest that the nervous system can profit from both heterogeneity and noise, and the multiple spatial coherence resonances are achieved via the emergency of spiral waves instead of synchronization patterns.     

Phase demodulation in the space domain without a fringe carrier

It is demonstrated that interference phase can be obtained from a fringe pattern using the spatial domain method known as spatial synchronous detection (direct interferometry) but without the usual fringe carrier (e.g. tilt) introduced into the interferometer. This is particularly useful in the study of transient events, where it is not always straightforward to introduce these carrier fringes. Spatial domain analysis is considerably faster than frequency domain (Fourier) methods, and could enable phase to be calculated in real time on relatively cheap personal computers. The main disadvantage of the new technique is that the sign of the recovered phase is lost, and must be inferred from object constraints.