A method of generating a color image of a sample includes obtaining a plurality of low resolution holographic images of the sample using a color image sensor, the sample illuminated simultaneously by light from three or more distinct colors, wherein the illuminated sample casts sample holograms on the image sensor and wherein the plurality of low resolution holographic images are obtained by relative x, y, and z directional shifts between sample holograms and the image sensor. Pixel super-resolved holograms of the sample are generated at each of the three or more distinct colors. De-multiplexed holograms are generated from the pixel super-resolved holograms. Phase information is retrieved from the de-multiplexed holograms using a phase retrieval algorithm to obtain complex holograms. The complex hologram for the three or more distinct colors is digitally combined and back-propagated to a sample plane to generate the color image.

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for processing phase information. When receiving a phase image including phase information, a processing device performs phase remapping of mapping the phase image to a predetermined range. The predetermined range is a range of a first phase value to a second phase value having a period of 2π, and a difference between the first phase value and the second phase value is 2π.

Techniques to improve image quality in holography utilizing lenses made from materials with non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties, such as birefringent materials, to advantageously split an incoming beam of light into two coincident beams with different focal lengths that interfere with one another and thus create holograms free of electro-optical or pixelated devices are disclosed for microscopy and other applications. The use of thin birefringent lenses and single crystal alpha-BBO lenses are introduced. Corresponding systems, methods and apparatuses are described.

An optical method of characterizing an object comprises providing an object to be characterized, the object having at least one nanoscale feature; illuminating the object with coherent plane wave optical radiation having a wavelength larger than the nanoscale feature; capturing a diffraction intensity pattern of the radiation which is scattered by the object; supplying the diffraction intensity pattern to a neural network trained with a training set of diffraction intensity patterns corresponding to other objects with a same nanoscale feature as the object to be characterized, the neural network configured to recover information about the object from the diffraction intensity pattern; and making a characterization of the object based on the recovered information.

The invention relates to a method for counting particles, particularly blood cells, in a sample, using a lensless optical imaging device. The sample is arranged between a light source and an image sensor. The sample is illuminated by a light source and an image is acquired by the image sensor, said image sensor being exposed to a light wave called an exposition wave. A digital propagation operator is applied to the acquired image so as to obtain a complex amplitude of the exposition wave according to a surface facing the image sensor. An image, called a reconstructed image, is formed from the modulus and/or the phase of said complex amplitude, on which image the particles to be counted appear in the form of regions of interest. The method then comprises a step of selecting the regions of interest corresponding to the particles to be counted.

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.

Techniques to improve image quality in holography utilizing lenses made from materials with non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties, such as birefringent materials, to advantageously split an incoming beam of light into two coincident beams with different focal lengths that interfere with one another and thus create holograms free of electro-optical or pixelated devices are disclosed. Corresponding systems, methods and apparatuses are described.

A method for performing color image reconstruction of a single super-resolved holographic sample image includes obtaining a plurality of sub-pixel shifted lower resolution hologram images of the sample using an image sensor by simultaneous illumination at multiple color channels. Super-resolved hologram intensity images for each color channel are digitally generated based on the lower resolution hologram images. The super-resolved hologram intensity images for each color channel are back propagated to an object plane with image processing software to generate a real and imaginary input images of the sample for each color channel. A trained deep neural network is provided and is executed by image processing software using one or more processors of a computing device and configured to receive the real input image and the imaginary input image of the sample for each color channel and generate a color output image of the sample.

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.

According to an aspect of the present inventive concept there is provided a device for imaging of a microscopic object, the device comprising: an array of light sensitive areas, each being sensitive to detect light spanning a wavelength range of at least 400-1200 nm; at least one light source configured to generate light at a plurality of wavelengths within the wavelength range, comprising at least one wavelength in a visible part of the wavelength range and at least one wavelength in a short-wave infrared, SWIR, part of the wavelength range, and arranged to illuminate the microscopic object with the generated light such that at least part of the light is scattered by the microscopic object; wherein the device is configured to transmit the scattered light and non-scattered light, from the same light source, to the array of light sensitive areas configured to detect an interference pattern formed between the scattered light and the non-scattered light, for each wavelength.