Single-shot isotropic differential interference contrast microscopy

• Main Authors: Wang, Xinwei, Wang, Hao, Wang, Jinlu, Liu, Xingsi, Hao, Huijie, Tan, You Sin, Zhang, Yilei, Zhang, He, Ding, Xiangyan, Zhao, Weisong, Wang, Yuhang, Lu, Zhengang, Liu, Jian, Yang, Joel K. W., Tan, Jiubin, Li, Haoyu, Qiu, Cheng-Wei, Hu, Guangwei, Ding, Xumin
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering; Fluorescence Imaging; Scanning Electron Microscopy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169184
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy allows high-contrast, low-phototoxicity, and label-free imaging of transparent biological objects, and has been applied in the field of cellular morphology, cell segmentation, particle tracking, optical measurement and others. Commercial DIC microscopy based on Nomarski or Wollaston prism resorts to the interference of two polarized waves with a lateral differential offset (shear) and axial phase shift (bias). However, the shear generated by these prisms is limited to the rectilinear direction, unfortunately resulting in anisotropic contrast imaging. Here we propose an ultracompact metasurface-assisted isotropic DIC (i-DIC) microscopy based on a grand original pattern of radial shear interferometry, that converts the rectilinear shear into rotationally symmetric along radial direction, enabling single-shot isotropic imaging capabilities. The i-DIC presents a complementary fusion of typical meta-optics, traditional microscopes and integrated optical system, and showcases the promising and synergetic advancements in edge detection, particle motion tracking, and label-free cellular imaging.