Numerical reconstruction of digital holograms with variable viewing angles

Combining multi-marker metabarcoding and digital holography to describe eukaryotic plankton across the Newfoundland Shelf

The planktonic diversity throughout the oceans is vital to ecosystem functioning and linked to environmental change. Plankton monitoring tools have advanced considerably with high-throughput in-situ digital cameras and genomic sequencing, opening new challenges for high-frequency observations of community composition, structure, and species discovery. Here, we combine multi-marker metabarcoding based on nuclear 18S (V4) and plastidial 16S (V4–V5) rRNA gene amplicons with a digital in-line holographic microscope to provide a synoptic diversity survey of eukaryotic plankton along the Newfoundland Shelf (Canada) during the winter transition phase of the North Atlantic bloom phenomenon. Metabarcoding revealed a rich eukaryotic diversity unidentifiable in the imaging samples, confirming the presence of ecologically important saprophytic protists which were unclassifiable in matching images, and detecting important groups unobserved or taxonomically unresolved during similar sequencing campaigns in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. In turn, imaging analysis provided quantitative observations of widely prevalent plankton from every trophic level. Despite contrasting plankton compositions portrayed by each sampling method, both capture broad spatial differences between the northern and southern sectors of the Newfoundland Shelf and suggest complementary estimations of important features in eukaryotic assemblages. Future tasks will involve standardizing digital imaging and metabarcoding for wider use and consistent, comparable ocean observations.

Coherent field propagation between tilted planes

Propagating electromagnetic light fields between nonparallel planes is of special importance, e.g., within the design of novel computer-generated holograms or the simulation of optical systems. In contrast to the extensively discussed evaluation between parallel planes, the diffraction-based propagation of light onto a tilted plane is more burdensome, since discrete fast Fourier transforms cannot be applied directly. In this work, we propose a quasi-fast algorithm (O(N³ log N)) that deals with this problem. Based on a proper decomposition into three rotations, the vectorial field distribution is calculated on a tilted plane using the spectrum of plane waves. The algorithm works on equidistant grids, so neither nonuniform Fourier transforms nor an explicit complex interpolation is necessary. The proposed algorithm is discussed in detail and applied to several examples of practical interest.

Comparative analysis on viewing angle change in Fresnel and Fourier holographic images reconstructed by a tilted plane wave

We carry out a comparative analysis on a viewing angle change in Fresnel and Fourier holographic images reconstructed by a tilted plane wave. A tilted plane wave illuminating an on-axis hologram generates a diffractive wave carrying the holographic image in a paraxial region of a new diffraction axis. The reconstructed image in the Fresnel hologram is deformed along the new viewing direction, which is well described as Affine transformation. In the Fourier holographic image, the replica of the image is formed without its deformation when the hologram is placed in the front focal plane of the lens, whereas in the case of a hologram that is located at a distance different from a focal length, image deformation arises. This property is investigated through numerical simulation based on a wide-angle diffraction phenomenon. We also perform a similar interpretation for high-order diffraction images appearing in the sampled Fourier hologram and discuss a method for enlarging the viewing angle of the holographic image.

Calculating the Fresnel diffraction of light from a shifted and tilted plane

We propose a technique for calculating the diffraction of light in the Fresnel region from a plane that is the light source (source plane) to a plane at which the diffracted light is to be calculated (destination plane). When the wavefield of the source plane is described by a group of points on a grid, this technique can be used to calculate the wavefield of the group of points on a grid on the destination plane. The positions of both planes may be shifted, and the plane normal vectors of both planes may have different directions. Since a scaled Fourier transform is used for the calculation, it can be calculated faster than calculating the diffraction by a Fresnel transform at each point. This technique can be used to calculate and generate planar holograms from computer graphics data.

Arbitrary shape surface Fresnel diffraction

Fresnel diffraction calculation on an arbitrary shape surface is proposed. This method is capable of calculating Fresnel diffraction from a source surface with an arbitrary shape to a planar destination surface. Although such calculation can be readily calculated by the direct integral of a diffraction calculation, the calculation cost is proportional to O(N²) in one dimensional or O(N⁴) in two dimensional cases, where N is the number of sampling points. However, the calculation cost of the proposed method is O(N log N) in one dimensional or O(N² log N) in two dimensional cases using non-uniform fast Fourier transform.

Reconstruction of refractive-index distribution in off-axis digital holography optical diffraction tomographic system

In the paper the optical diffraction tomographic system for reconstruction of the internal refractive index distribution in optical fiber utilizing grating Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration is explored. The setup applies afocal imaging. Conventional grating application gives, however, highly aberrated object beam producing incorrect refractive-index reconstructions. The grating inherent aberrations are characterized, its influence on both image projections and refractive index reconstructions is presented. To remove aberrations and enable tomographic reconstruction a novel digital holographic algorithm, correcting optical system imaging, is developed. The algorithm uses plane wave spectrum decomposition of optical field for solving diffraction problem between parallel and tilted planes and enabling correction of imaging system aberrations. The algorithm concept was successfully proved in simulations and the experiment.

High resolution digital holographic microscopy with a wide field of view based on a synthetic aperture technique and use of linear CCD scanning

Theoretical analysis shows that, to improve the resolution and the range of the field of view of the reconstructed image in digital lensless Fourier transform holography, an effective solution is to increase the area and the pixel number of the recorded digital hologram. A new approach based on the synthetic aperture technique and use of linear CCD scanning is presented to obtain digital holographic images with high resolution and a wide field of view. By using a synthetic aperture technique and linear CCD scanning, we obtained digital lensless Fourier transform holograms with a large area of 3.5 cm x 3.5 cm (5000 x 5000 pixels). The numerical reconstruction of a 4 mm object at a distance of 14 cm by use of a Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral shows that a theoretically minimum resolvable distance of 2.57 microm can be achieved at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical analysis.

Pixel-size-maintained image reconstruction of digital holograms on arbitrarily tilted planes by the angular spectrum method

We present an effective method for the pixel-size-maintained reconstruction of images on arbitrarily tilted planes in digital holography. The method is based on the plane wave expansion of the diffraction wave fields and the three-axis rotation of the wave vectors. The images on the tilted planes are reconstructed without loss of the frequency contents of the hologram and have the same pixel sizes. Our method shows good results in the extreme cases of large tilting angles and in the region closer than the paraxial case. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by both simulation and experiment.

Exact analysis of the effects of sampling of the scalar diffraction field

If the sampled diffraction pattern due to a planar object is used to reconstruct the object pattern by backpropagation, the obtained pattern is no longer the same as the original. The effect of such sampling on the reconstruction is analyzed. The formulation uses the plane-wave expansion, and therefore the provided solution is exact for wave propagation in media where scalar wave propagation is valid. In contrast to the sampling effects under the Fresnel approximation, the exact solution indicates that there are no modulated replicas of the original object in the reconstructed pattern. Rather, the distortion is in the form of modulated, translated, and dispersed versions of the original.

Wavelength scanning digital interference holography for variable tomographic scanning

We present a novel technique of variable tomographic scanning capable of reconstructing tomographic images of an object volume along any arbitrarily tilted plane. The method is based on wavelength scanning digital interference holography, using a series of holograms generated with a range of scanned wavelengths. From each hologram, the object field is reconstructed in a number of selected tilted planes. The desired tomographic images are then reconstructed from the numerical superposition of the object fields. Thus the tomographic images can be generated along variable planes without the need for physically repeating the scanning and recording processes. Experimental results are presented to verify the proposed concept.