A lens-free microscope system for automatically analyzing yeast cell viability in a stained sample includes a portable, lens-free microscopy device that includes a housing containing a light source coupled to an optical fiber, the optical fiber spaced away several centimeters from an image sensor disposed at one end of the housing, wherein the stained sample is disposed on the image sensor or a sample holder adjacent to the image sensor. Hologram images are transferred to a computing device having image processing software contained therein, the image processing software identifying yeast cell candidates of interest from back-propagated images of the stained sample, whereby a plurality of spatial features are extracted from the yeast cell candidates of interest and subject to a trained machine learning model to classify the yeast cell candidates of interest as live or dead.

Object interference in biological samples generated by lateral shearing interference microscopes is addressed by a shearing microscope slide comprising a periodic structure having alternating reference and sample regions. In some embodiments, the reference regions are configured to provide references that remove sample overlap in a sheared microscopic measurement. A system for generating sheared microscopic measurements is also provided that comprises an inlet configured to receive a sample material, an outlet configured to release a portion of the sample material, and a periodic structure having a plurality of interleaved reference and sample channels. In some cases, the sample channels are configured to accommodate a flow of sample material from the inlet to the outlet and the reference channels are configured to provide references that remove sample overlap in a sheared microscopic measurement.

Object interference in biological samples generated by lateral shearing interference microscopes is addressed by a shearing microscope slide comprising a periodic structure having alternating reference and sample regions. In some embodiments, the reference regions are configured to provide references that remove sample overlap in a sheared microscopic measurement. A system for generating sheared microscopic measurements is also provided that comprises an inlet configured to receive a sample material, an outlet configured to release a portion of the sample material, and a periodic structure having a plurality of interleaved reference and sample channels. In some cases, the sample channels are configured to accommodate a flow of sample material from the inlet to the outlet and the reference channels are configured to provide references that remove sample overlap in a sheared microscopic measurement.

The invention relates to a method for determining the thickness and refractive index of a layer (6) on a substrate (26). The layer (6) having a layer boundary surface (30) facing the substrate (26) and a layer top side (28) facing away from the substrate (26). In said method, the following steps are performed; imaging the layer (6), by confocal microscopy, along an optical axis (8), determining a point spread function resolved along the optical axis (8) al the layer boundary surface (30) and the layer lop side (28), determining an apparent thickness of the layer at a lateral point of the layer from the distance between two maxima of the point spread function, determining the widening of a maximum that the point spread function has at the layer boundary surface (30) relative to the width of the same maximum that the point spread function has at the layer top side (28), at the lateral point, and determining the thickness and refractive index of the layer (6) at the lateral point from the apparent thickness and the widening.

The invention relates to a method for determining the thickness and refractive index of a layer (6) on a substrate (26). The layer (6) having a layer boundary surface (30) facing the substrate (26) and a layer top side (28) facing away from the substrate (26). In said method, the following steps are performed; imaging the layer (6), by confocal microscopy, along an optical axis (8), determining a point spread function resolved along the optical axis (8) al the layer boundary surface (30) and the layer lop side (28), determining an apparent thickness of the layer at a lateral point of the layer from the distance between two maxima of the point spread function, determining the widening of a maximum that the point spread function has at the layer boundary surface (30) relative to the width of the same maximum that the point spread function has at the layer top side (28), at the lateral point, and determining the thickness and refractive index of the layer (6) at the lateral point from the apparent thickness and the widening.

Disclosed is a method of, and associated apparatus for, determining an edge position relating to an edge of a feature comprised within an image, such as a scanning electron microscope image, which comprises noise. The method comprises determining a reference signal from said image; and determining said edge position with respect to said reference signal. The reference signal may be determined from the image by applying a 1-dimensional low-pass filter to the image in a direction parallel to an initial contour estimating the edge position.

Disclosed is a method of, and associated apparatus for, determining an edge position relating to an edge of a feature comprised within an image, such as a scanning electron microscope image, which comprises noise. The method comprises determining a reference signal from said image; and determining said edge position with respect to said reference signal. The reference signal may be determined from the image by applying a 1-dimensional low-pass filter to the image in a direction parallel to an initial contour estimating the edge position.

The radiation detection device includes: a sample holding unit; an optical microscope configured to observe a sample held by the sample holding unit; an irradiation unit that irradiates the sample with radiation; a detection unit that detects radiation generated from the sample; an adjustment unit that adjusts a relationship between a focal position of the optical microscope and a position of the sample such that the optical microscope is focused on one portion of the sample; a change unit that changes a position, on which the optical microscope is to be focused, on the sample; an imaging unit that creates a partial image captured by the optical microscope at the changed position on the sample in a state in which the adjustment unit performs adjustment for focusing; and a sample image creation unit that creates a sample image by combining a plurality of partial images created by the imaging unit.

An epi-cone shell light-sheet super-resolution system and an epi-fluorescence microscope are provided. The epi-cone shell light-sheet super-resolution system includes a light-emitting element, a lens set, and an objective lens. After passing through the lens set, the excitation light emitted by the light-emitting element is refracted into ring-shaped light and focused on the objective-lens back-focal plane. The objective lens focuses the ring-shaped light to form a ring-shaped light cone which is then focused on the sample position. The ring-shaped light cone has a fixed thickness. In addition, the same objective lens is used for both excitation and imaging, thus achieving an epi-fluorescence microscope.

A polarization holographic microscope system is disclosed. The polarization holographic microscope system can acquire a birefringence image and a three-dimensional phase image with high sensitivity by aperture synthesis of sample beams at various angles, and a sample image acquisition method using the microscope system.