Both a hologram and fluorescence are simultaneously captured in a state in which they can be reconstructed separately. A recording device (10) includes: a laser light source (LS1) which irradiates a subject (13) with object illumination light so that object light is generated; and an image capturing device (12) which captures (i) a hologram formed by interference between reference light and object light and (ii) an image of fluorescence, and the object illumination light further excites a fluorescent material (14) contained in the subject (13).

Provided is a digital holographic imaging apparatus, comprising: an illumination portion (10) having an illumination light emission surface (32i) for emitting coherent light of a specific wavelength as illumination light toward an object (1) side relative to the illumination light emission surface (32i), and a reference light emission surface (32r) for emitting the coherent light, as reference light, in a direction opposite to the illumination light; and an image sensor (50) located on the reference light emission surface (32r) side of the illumination portion (10) and imaging an interference pattern between object light having been modulated by the object (1) and passed through the illumination portion (10) and the reference light of the illumination light, the image sensor (50) having a pixel array (51) comprising two-dimensionally aligned pixels.

A system and method to produce a hologram of a single plane of a three dimensional object includes an electromagnetic radiation assembly to elicit electromagnetic radiation from a single plane of said object, and an assembly to direct the elicited electromagnetic radiation toward a hologram-forming assembly. The hologram-forming assembly creates a hologram that is recorded by an image capture assembly and then further processed to create maximum resolution images free of an inherent holographic artifact.

In various embodiments a module for generating an interference pattern for producing a digital holographic image is provided. The module comprises an adaptive lens arrangement configured to receive, from a microscope, an object wave of an intermediate image of a sample to be examined, and to generate an adapted object wave of the intermediate image of the sample by reducing a curvature of the object wave of the intermediate image; a reference input interface configured to receive an optical fiber delivering a reference wave from the coherent light source to the module and an interference arrangement configured to generate an interference pattern to be received by an imaging sensor arrangement, wherein the interference pattern is based on the adapted object wave and the reference wave from a coherent light source; wherein a position of the reference input interface of the module is configured to be adjustable with respect to at least two directions (x-y), wherein at least one of the adjustable directions is in parallel to a propagation direction of the reference wave leaving the optical fiber.

An apparatus for producing a hologram of an object includes a light source that emits an incoherent electromagnetic wave toward the object, and a masking device configured to display a mask, receive the incoherent electromagnetic wave emitted toward the object, mask the received incoherent electromagnetic wave according to the displayed mask, and produce a masked electromagnetic wave. The apparatus also includes an image recording device configured to capture an image of the masked electromagnetic wave, and a processing device configured to convert the image of the masked electromagnetic wave into the hologram of the object. A method for producing a hologram of an object is also described.

A system and method to produce a hologram of a single plane of a three dimensional object includes an electromagnetic radiation assembly to elicit electromagnetic radiation from a single plane of said object, and an assembly to direct the elicited electromagnetic radiation toward a hologram-forming assembly. The hologram-forming assembly creates a hologram that is recorded by an image capture assembly and then further processed to create maximum resolution images free of an inherent holographic artifact.

An apparatus for producing a hologram of an object includes a light source that emits an incoherent electromagnetic wave toward the object, and a masking device configured to display a mask, receive the incoherent electromagnetic wave emitted toward the object, mask the received incoherent electromagnetic wave according to the displayed mask, and produce a masked electromagnetic wave. The apparatus also includes an image recording device configured to capture an image of the masked electromagnetic wave, and a processing device configured to convert the image of the masked electromagnetic wave into the hologram of the object. A method for producing a hologram of an object is also described.

Metrology targets are formed on a substrate (W) by a lithographic process. A target (T) comprising one or more grating structures is illuminated with spatially coherent radiation under different conditions. Radiation (650) diffracted by from said target area interferes with reference radiation (652) interferes with to form an interference pattern at an image detector (623). One or more images of said interference pattern are captured. From the captured image(s) and from knowledge of the reference radiation a complex field of the collected scattered radiation at the detector. A synthetic radiometric image (814) of radiation diffracted by each grating is calculated from the complex field. From the synthetic radiometric images (814, 814) of opposite portions of a diffractions spectrum of the grating, a measure of asymmetry in the grating is obtained. Using suitable targets, overlay and other performance parameters of the lithographic process can be calculated from the measured asymmetry.

A method of generating a hologram of an object is disclosed. The method comprises: receiving data corresponding to a plurality of non-coherent sub-holograms acquired by an optically passive synthetic aperture holographic apparatus, combining the sub-holograms to generate a mosaic hologram of the object, and transmitting the mosaic hologram to a computer readable medium.

The present disclosure relates to a hologram recording system that has an optical structure capable of replacing a polarization image sensor, thereby acquiring high-resolution holograms in real time by utilizing a high-resolution general image sensor. The hologram recording system for acquiring an interference pattern formed by self-interference of incident light from a target object is disclosed. The hologram recording system comprises a polarizer array including a plurality of polarizers, an image sensor including a plurality of pixels and an imaging optics disposed between the polarizer array and the image sensor. The imaging optics optically corresponds each of the plurality of polarizers to each of the plurality of pixels.