Refractometry of microscopic objects with digital holography

Digital holography has some desirable properties for refractometry of microscopic objects since it gives phase and amplitude information of an object in all depths of focus from one set of exposures. We show that the amplitude part of the image can be used to observe how the Becke lines move between different depths of focus and hence determine whether an object has a higher or a lower index of refraction than its surrounding medium, i.e., the sign of the relief. It is also shown that one single-phase image provides an independent technique to determine the sign of relief between an object and the surrounding medium.     

Improved three-dimensional imaging with a digital holography microscope with a source of partial spatial coherence

A digital holographic technique is implemented in a microscope for three-dimensional imaging reconstruction. The setup is a Mach-Zehnder interferometer that uses an incoherent light source to remove the coherent noise that is inherent in the laser sources. A phase-stepping technique determines the optical phase in the image plane of the microscope. Out-of-focus planes are refocused by digital holographic computations, thus considerably enlarging the depth of investigation without the need to change the optical focus mechanically. The technique can be implemented in transmission for various magnification ratios and can cover a wide range of applications. Performances and limitations of the microscope are theoretically evaluated. Experimental results for a test target are given, and examples of two applications in particle localization and investigation of biological sample are provided.     

Determining spatial modes of lasers with spatial coherence measurements

We explain a technique that extracts both the structure and the modal weights of spatial modes of lasers by analyzing the spatial coherence of the beam. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that an experimental method is being used to measure arbitrary forms of the spatial modes. We applied this method to an edge-emitting Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser with a stripe width of 5 mum and extracted fundamental and first-order lateral modes with relative power weights of 96.2% and 3.8%. There was a single transverse mode.     

Mathematical modeling of triangle-mesh-modeled three-dimensional surface objects for digital holography

We develop a mathematical model of triangle-mesh-modeled three-dimensional (3D) surface objects for digital holography. The proposed mathematical model includes the analytic angular spectrum representation of image light fields emitted from 3D surface objects with occlusion and the computation method for the developed light field representation. Reconstruction of computer-generated holograms synthesized by using the developed model is demonstrated experimentally.     

Simultaneous depth determination of multiple objects by focus analysis in digital holography

Focus analysis techniques from computer vision are applied to digital holography to determine the depth (range) of multiple objects and their surfaces from a single hologram capture. With this method the depths of objects can be determined from a single hologram capture without the need for manual focusing and without prior information on object location. Variance and the Laplacian of Gaussian are analyzed as focus measures, and techniques are proposed for focus plane determination from the focus measure curves. The algorithm is described in detail and demonstrated through simulation and optical experiment.     

Recognition and classification of three-dimensional phase objects by digital Fresnel holography

We demonstrate the validity of wavelet-based processing for recognition and classification of three-dimensional phase objects. One Fresnel digital hologram of each of the three-dimensional (3-D) phase objects to be classified is recorded. The electronic holograms are processed digitally to permit 3-D object information to be retrieved as two-dimensional digital complex images. We use a Mexican-hat wavelet- matched filter (WMF) to enhance the correlation peak and discriminate between the objects. The WMF performs a wavelet transform (WT) to enhance the significant features of the images and the correlation of the WT coefficients thus obtained. We compare the feasibility of a WMF-based object classifier with the matched-filter-based classifier to classify our four 3-D phase objects in a 3-D scene into true or false classes with minimal error.     

Parallel phase-shifting digital holography with adaptive function using phase-mode spatial light modulator

Parallel phase-shifting digital holography using a phase-mode spatial light modulator (SLM) is proposed. The phase-mode SLM implements spatial distribution of phase retardation required in the parallel phase-shifting digital holography. This SLM can also compensate dynamically the phase distortion caused by optical elements such as beam splitters, lenses, and air fluctuation. Experimental demonstration using a static object is presented.     

Iterative algorithm of phase determination in digital holography for real-time recording of real objects

We propose a numerical method to obtain complex amplitude distribution of a three-dimensional (3D) object from a digital hologram. The method consists of two processes. The first process is to measure simultaneously a hologram of the 3D object and an object intensity distribution by two image sensors. These intensity distributions give us the amplitude and absolute value of phase of the 3D object at the image sensor plane. The second process is the determination of phase distribution by a proposed iterative process based on the criterion that the reconstructed 3D object is in focus and its conjugate reconstruction is out of focus. Numerical and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Partial spatial coherence effects in digital holographic microscopy with a laser source

We investigate a digital holographic microscope that permits us to modify the spatial coherence state of the sample illumination by changing the spot size of a laser beam on a rotating ground glass. Out-of-focus planes are refocused by digital holographic reconstruction with numerical implementation of the Kirchhoff-Fresnel integral. The partial coherence nature of the illumination reduces the coherent artifact noise with respect to fully coherent illumination. The investigated configuration allows the spatial coherence state to be changed without modifying the illumination level of the sample. The effect of the coherence state on the digital holographic reconstruction is theoretically and experimentally evaluated. We also show how multiple reflection interferences are limited by the use of reduced spatial coherent illumination.     

Suppression of phase ambiguity in digital holography by using partial coherence or specimen rotation

In this paper we present two approaches for extracting the surface profile as well as obtaining 3D imaging of near field objects by usage of partial coherence and digital holography. In the first approach a light source with given temporal partial coherence is used to illuminate a near field object. The reflected light is interfered with the reference source. By computing the local contrast of the generated fringes one may estimate the 3D topography and the profile of the object. This approach extracts the 3D information from a single image, and its accuracy does not depend on triangulation angle like in fringe projection methods. The second approach is tomography based. There we illuminate the object from several slightly different angles, and for each we compute the wrapped phase using digital holography techniques. Combining the wrapped phase estimation from several points of projection allows calculating the unwrapped phase and therefore the true profile of even a phase-only object. Increasing the number of points of view decreases the relative error of the estimated profile.     

Digital holographic microscopy with reduced spatial coherence for three-dimensional particle flow analysis

We investigate the use of a digital holographic microscope working in partially coherent illumination to study in three dimensions a micrometer-size particle flow. The phenomenon under investigation rapidly varies in such a way that it is necessary to record, for every camera frame, the complete holographic information for further processing. For this purpose, we implement the Fourier-transform method for optical amplitude extraction. The suspension of particles is flowing in a split-flow lateral-transport thin separation cell that is usually used to separate the species by their sizes. Details of the optical implementation are provided. Examples of reconstructed images of different particle sizes are shown, and a particle-velocity measurement technique that is based on the blurred holographic image is exploited.     

Full-field phase modulation characterization of liquid-crystal spatial light modulator using digital holography

A direct quantitative phase measurement method to characterize intrinsic phase modulation from an entire active area of transmissive twisted-nematic liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (TN-LCSLM) is presented using digital holography (DH). The change in birefringence of liquid crystal material with respect to addressed gray scale produces phase modulation of wavefront transmitted through TN-LCSLM. Existing methods for phase modulation characterization of LCSLM mainly provides point measurement on its total active region. In this paper, the DH method is evolved to extract quantitative phase information of an entire active area from a single digital hologram formed using the complex wavefront transmitted through TN-LCSLM.     

复杂场景下的变形目标跟踪

提出一种新的针对目标变形的模板匹配跟踪方法。对于跟踪序列图像中的目标,采用均值平移方法对原图像进行滤波平滑后提取边缘;定义一种点到邻域的广义距离测度,增强了匹配的容错性,与计算 Hausdorff 距离相比计算量大为减少;采用边缘相似点的距离均值和方差作为匹配的相似测度和置信准则,进一步降低了匹配的误差;提出在 8 邻域内基于马尔可夫模型的启发式规则修正模板策略,阻止跟踪点漂移。实验结果表明,该方法能以高达 98%的正确匹配率对复杂场景序列图像中的运动目标进行稳定跟踪。     

Border processing in digital holography by extension of the digital hologram and reduction of the higher spatial frequencies

When a digital holographic reconstruction is performed, digital diffraction effects occur at the borders when the hologram amplitudes at the two opposite border points are different on each vertical or horizontal line. We propose a method of digital hologram extension to reduce such diffraction effects. The method consists of extending the size of the digital hologram and of filling the extended part by complex values that minimize, according to a numerical criterion, the highest spatial frequencies. The theoretical aspects of the method are given and the results from a demonstration are provided.     

Polarization microscopy by use of digital holography: application to optical-fiber birefringence measurements

We present a digital holographic microscope that permits one to image polarization state. This technique results from the coupling of digital holographic microscopy and polarization digital holography. The interference between two orthogonally polarized reference waves and the wave transmitted by a microscopic sample, magnified by a microscope objective, is recorded on a CCD camera. The off-axis geometry permits one to reconstruct separately from this single hologram two wavefronts that are used to image the object-wave Jones vector. We applied this technique to image the birefringence of a bent fiber. To evaluate the precision of the phase-difference measurement, the birefringence induced by internal stress in an optical fiber is measured and compared to the birefringence profile captured by a standard method, which had been developed to obtain high-resolution birefringence profiles of optical fibers.     

Improvement in visibility of an in-focus reconstructed image in digital holography by reduction of the influence of out-of-focus objects

When a reconstruction is performed on a digital holographic image that contains small objects at different depths, diffraction that is due to out-of-focus objects disrupts the visibility of the nearby focused objects. We propose a method to substitute for focused object amplitudes other amplitudes that will reduce propagation diffraction effects when other depths are investigated. The replacement amplitudes are computed by use of an algorithm that reduces the highest spatial frequencies of the resultant image. The theoretical aspects of the method are presented, and results for simulated and experimental examples are shown.     

小波变换在数字全息中的应用

数字全息是通过数字重构来同时获取被测物强度与相位,但记录时的激光散斑效应和重构时的零级衍射斑成为了这种方法的瓶颈。将小波变换引入数字全息,可直接消除零级衍射像,无需相移,也不需要采集多幅图像;小波非线性滤波器还可消除散斑噪声。模拟和实验结果表明,小波分析的引入,可以消除零级衍射影响,改善图像质量,提高测试分辨率。     

Effects of quantization in phase-shifting digital holography

We discuss quantization effects of hologram recording on the quality of reconstructed images in phase-shifting digital holography. We vary bit depths of phase-shifted holograms in both numerical simulation and experiments and then derived the complex amplitude, which is subjected to Fresnel transformation for the image reconstruction. The influence of bit-depth limitation in quantization has been demonstrated in a numerical simulation for spot-array patterns with linearly varying intensities and a continuous intensity object. The objects are provided with uniform and random phase modulation. In experiments, digital holograms are originally recorded at 8 bits and the bit depths are changed to deliver holograms at bit depths of 1 to 8 bits for the image reconstruction. The quality of the reconstructed images has been evaluated for the different quantization levels.