Improved phase sensitivity in spectral domain phase microscopy using line-field illumination and self phase-referencing

Opt Express. 2009 Jun 22;17(13):10681-7. doi: 10.1364/oe.17.010681.

Abstract

We report a quantitative phase microscope based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography and line-field illumination. The line illumination allows self phase-referencing method to reject common-mode phase noise. The quantitative phase microscope also features a separate reference arm, permitting the use of high numerical aperture (NA > 1) microscope objectives for high resolution phase measurement at multiple points along the line of illumination. We demonstrate that the path-length sensitivity of the instrument can be as good as 41 pm/square root of Hz, which makes it suitable for nanometer scale study of cell motility. We present the detection of natural motions of cell surface and two-dimensional surface profiling of a HeLa cell.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Cell Membrane / metabolism
  • Equipment Design
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Lasers
  • Microscopy / instrumentation
  • Microscopy / methods*
  • Neurons / pathology
  • Optics and Photonics
  • Spectrophotometry / methods
  • Surface Properties
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods*