Simultaneous measurement of refractive index distribution and topography by integrated transmission and reflection digital holographic microscopy

Integrated digital holographic microscopy based on surface plasmon resonance

We propose a novel digital holographic microscopy (DHM) by integrating surface plasmon holographic microscopy (SPHM) with reflection DHM based on the angular and polarization multiplexing techniques. Taking advantages of the high sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and the high reflectivity of gold film, the tiny variations of specimen's refractive index (RI) can be measured by using SPHM, and meanwhile, the thickness changes of the specimen can be determined by means of reflection DHM. We experimentally monitor the volatilization process of an alcohol-water mixture droplet to verify the validity of the integrated DHM. The proposed microscopy is very promising in the objective-coupling SPR microscopy for multi-information measurements of diverse specimens with low-contrast RI distributions (biomolecules, nanofluids, etc.) in a dynamic and nondestructive way.

Reconstruction of structured laser beams through a multimode fiber based on digital optical phase conjugation

The digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) technique is being actively developed for optical focusing and imaging through or inside complex media. Due to its time-reversal nature, DOPC has been exploited to regenerate different intensity targets. However, whether the targets with three-dimensional information through complex media could be recovered has not been experimentally demonstrated, to the best of our knowledge. Here, we present a method to regenerate structured laser beams based on DOPC. Although only the phase of the original scattered wave is time reversed, the reconstruction of a quasi-Bessel beam and vortex beams through a multimode fiber (MMF) is demonstrated. The regenerated quasi-Bessel beam shows the features of sub-diffraction focusing and a longer depth of field with respect to a Gaussian beam. Moreover, the reconstruction of vortex beams shows the fidelity of DOPC both in amplitude and phase, which is demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. We also prove that the reconstruction results of DOPC through the MMF are indeed phase conjugate to the original targets. We expect that these results could be useful in super-resolution imaging and optical micromanipulation through complex media, and further pave the way for achieving three-dimensional imaging based on DOPC.

Wavelength-multiplexing surface plasmon holographic microscopy

Surface plasmon holographic microscopy (SPHM), which combines surface plasmon microscopy with digital holographic microscopy, can be applied for amplitude- and phase-contrast surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging. In this paper, we propose an improved SPHM with the wavelength multiplexing technique based on two laser sources and a common-path hologram recording configuration. Through recording and reconstructing the SPR images at two wavelengths simultaneously employing the improved SPHM, tiny variation of dielectric refractive index in near field is quantitatively monitored with an extended measurement range while maintaining the high sensitivity. Moreover, imaging onion tissues is performed to demonstrate that the detection sensitivities of two wavelengths can compensate for each other in SPR imaging. The proposed wavelength-multiplexing SPHM presents simple structure, high temporal stability and inherent capability of phase curvature compensation, as well as shows great potentials for further applications in monitoring diverse dynamic processes related with refractive index variations and imaging biological tissues with low-contrast refractive index distributions in the near field.

Compact surface plasmon holographic microscopy for near-field film mapping

We develop a compact objective-coupling surface plasmon holographic microscopy with a common-path configuration by introducing a Wollaston prism. Through off-axis hologram recording and numerical reconstruction, amplitude- and phase-contrast surface plasmon resonance (SPR) images can be obtained simultaneously. Based on the four-layer SPR model, the thin film thickness distribution in near field can be mapped unambiguously using a novel demodulation method without a priori knowledge. The technique demonstrates nondestructive and full-field measurement capabilities with sub-nanometer resolution theoretically. Furthermore, owing to the high temporal stability, the recommended system shows great potential for dynamic measurement of near-field tiny refractive index or thickness variation in fields such as chemistry and biomedicine, etc.

Lateral shearing common-path digital holographic microscopy based on a slightly trapezoid Sagnac interferometer

We propose a compact and easy-to-align lateral shearing common-path digital holographic microscopy, which is based on a slightly trapezoid Sagnac interferometer to create two laterally sheared beams and form off-axis geometry. In this interferometer, the two beams pass through a set of identical optical elements in opposite directions and have nearly the same optical path difference. Without any vibration isolation, the temporal stability of the setup is found to be around 0.011 rad. Compared with highly simple lateral shearing interferometer, the off-axis angle of the setup can be easily adjusted and quantitatively controlled, meanwhile the image quality is not degraded. The experiments for measuring the static and dynamic specimens are performed to demonstrate the capability and applicability.

Efficient generation of vector beams by calibrating the phase response of a spatial light modulator

The spatial light modulator (SLM) is considered as an effective device to create beams with inhomogeneous phases and polarizations, such as vortex beams and vector beams. However, the nonlinear responses of SLM severely reduce the generation efficiency of these beams. In this paper, by calibrating the SLM to present a linear phase response in the scope of 0-2π, we propose a convenient and efficient method of creating vector beams with arbitrary polarizations based on phase encoding. Compared with the common methods of generating vector beams, our approach can distinctly enhance the generation efficiency.

Phase-shifting infrared digital holographic microscopy based on an all-fiber variable phase shifter

Phase-shifting infrared digital holographic microscopy based on a homemade all-fiber variable phase shifter is presented to quantitatively obtain the phase distribution of an object wave carrying the information of a transparent specimen in the infrared band. The all-fiber variable phase shifter, which consists of a tubular piezoelectric transducer (PZT) and a single-mode fiber, can accurately produce any phase shift between 0 and 2π by modulating the driving voltage of the tubular PZT. Taking measurements of different staircase structures on a silicon wafer as samples, two configurations are presented based on different phase-shifting implementations: one is a slight off-axis two-step phase shift and the other is an in-line four-step phase shift. The reconstructed results prove the validity of this method.