title: Doubling the resolution of spatial-light-modulator-based differential interference contrast microscopy by structured illumination.
abstract: Recently developed spatial light modulator (SLM)-based differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy [Opt. Lett. 34, 2988 (2009)] reveals flexibility on the implementation of DIC imaging. However, its numerical aperture (spatial resolution) is limited to maintain sufficient interference contrast, because it requires two beams to interfere. We present a structured illumination (SI) SLM-based DIC microscopy to effectively improve the lateral resolution of the SLM-based DIC microscopy. The SI field is generated and controlled by an adjustable grating displayed on an SLM. The SI SLM-based DIC expands the bandwidth of the coherent transfer function of the SLM-based DIC imaging system, thus improving the spatial resolution. The reconstructed SI SLM-based DIC image exhibits lateral resolution of approximately 208 nm, doubling that of the common SLM-based DIC image (approximately 415 nm). SI SLM-based DIC microscopy has the potential for achieving high-resolution quantitative phase images.
authors.affiliation: Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Jianling
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Shaoqun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D008027:Light; D008029:Lighting / Q000379:methods*; D008857:Microscopy, Interference / Q000379:methods*; D008863:Microspheres; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011137:Polystyrenes