An illumination unit emits an illumination light to a specimen. An image sensor includes multiple pixels arranged in a two-dimensional manner. The image sensor captures an image of the intensity distribution of an interference pattern formed due to the illumination light that has interacted with the specimen, and outputs image data. A defect information acquisition unit acquires defect position information that indicates the positions of defective pixels of the image sensor. A processing unit reconstructs a subject image that represents the specimen based on the image data and the defect position information.

An illumination unit emits illumination light to a specimen. An image sensor includes multiple pixels arranged in a two-dimensional manner on a photoelectric surface. The image sensor captures an image of a magnitude distribution of an interference pattern formed due to the illumination light that has interacted with the specimen. A limiter limits at least one from among the spatial frequency of the interference pattern formed on the photoelectric surface and the incident angle of the light input to the photoelectric surface.

A low-cost digital holography microscope (DHM) that is capable of performing inspection at high speed while accurately inspecting an inspection object at high resolution, an inspection method using the DHM, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device by using the DHM are provided. The DHM includes: a light source configured to generate and output light; a beam splitter configured to cause the light to be incident on an inspection object and output reflected light from the inspection object; and a detector configured to detect the reflected light, wherein, when the reflected light includes interference light, the detector generates a hologram of the interference light, and wherein no lens is present in a path from the light source to the detector.

According to an embodiment, a holographic microscope comprises a light source, an optical system splitting light emitted from the light source into an object and a reflective mirror and inducing interference between light reflected by the object or transmitted through the object and light reflected by the reflective mirror, a first image sensor receiving the interference light and sensing interference information for the interference light, a second image sensor receiving the light reflected by the object or transmitted through the object and sensing information for the received light, and an image processor deriving a shape of the object based on the interference information sensed by the first image sensor and the information sensed by the second image sensor.

A totagram is produced by an iterative spectral phase recovery process resulting in complete information recovery using special masks, without a reference beam. Using these special masking systems reduce computation time, number of masks, and number of iterations. The special masking system is (1) a unity mask together with one or more bipolar binary masks with elements equal to 1 and ?1, or (2) a unity mask together with one or more phase masks, or (3) a unity mask together with one pair of masks or more than one pair of masks having binary amplitudes of 0's and 1's, in which the masks in the pair are complementary to each other with respect to amplitude, or (4) one or more pairs of complementary masks with binary amplitudes of 0's and 1's without a unity mask.

An optical scanning holography system includes a polarization-sensitive lens configured to receive a linearly polarized beam and generate a first spherical wave of right-handed circular polarized light having a negative focal length and a second spherical wave of left-handed circular polarized light having a positive focal length, a first polarizer configured to pass only a beam component therethrough in a predetermined polarization direction among components of the generated first and second spherical waves, a scanning unit configured to scan an object by using an interference beam generated between the first and second spherical waves passing through the first polarizer, and a first photodetector configured to detect a beam reflected from the object.

A new optical arrangement that creates high efficiency, high quality Fresnel Incoherent Correlation Holography (FINCH) holograms using transmission liquid crystal GRIN (TLCGRIN) diffractive lenses has been invented. This is in contrast to the universal practice in the field of using a reflective spatial light modulator (SLM) to separate sample and reference beams. Polarization sensitive TLCGRIN lenses enable a straight optical path, have 95% transmission efficiency, are analog devices without pixels and are free of many limitations of reflective SLM devices. An additional advantage is that they create an incoherent holographic system that is achromatic over a wide bandwidth. Two spherical beams created by the combination of a glass and a polarization sensitive TLCGRIN lenses interfere and a hologram is recorded by a digital camera. FINCH configurations which increase signal to noise ratios and imaging speed are also described.

Methods and apparatus are configured for focusing and imaging of translucent materials with decreased size and complexity and improve resolution. The methods and apparatus provide improved focusing and imaging with decreased size and weight, so as to allow use in many fields.

A magnetic field controlled guidestar for focusing light deep inside scattering media using optical phase conjugation. Compared with the optical and ultrasonic field, the magnetic field has an exceptional penetration depth. The magnetic particle guidestar has a high light-tagging efficiency, good biocompatibility, and a small diameter which enables a sharp and bright focusing deep inside biological tissue. This new method can benefit a wide range of biomedical applications including deep-tissue imaging, neural modulation, and targeted photothermal and photodynamic therapies.

A method of structured illumination digital holography includes: (a) providing a structured illumination generating unit and binarization random number encoding unit to generate a coded structured illumination pattern; (b) sampling at least two patterns with phase shift which synthesized as a single structured illumination pattern to be encoded; (c) forming a single digital hologram, and wavefront reconstructing the single digital hologram; (d) performing a compressive sensing approach to recover the object wave with at least two phase shift patterns; and (e) reconstructing the separation of overlap spectrum, to obtain an image covering bandpass spectrum with different high frequency and low frequency.