A method for analyzing microorganisms arranged in a sample is provided, the sample including a viability marker to modify an optical property of the microorganisms in different ways depending on whether they are dead or alive, the method including illumination of the sample and acquisition of an image of the latter by an image sensor, the image sensor then being exposed to an exposure light wave; determining positions of different microorganisms from the acquired image; applying a propagation operator to calculate at least one characteristic value of the exposure light wave at each radial position and at a plurality of distances from the detection plane representing a change in the characteristic value between the image sensor and the sample; and identifying living microorganisms according to each profile.

Irradiation light in a visible light region is irradiated to a sample while switching irradiation of infrared light IR having a wavelength that corresponds to the infrared absorption spectrum of an observation target material included in the sample between a first state and a second state. A first image and a second image are generated based on the phase distribution, the intensity distribution, and the polarization direction distribution of the light including the irradiation light that has passed through the sample in synchronization with the switching of the infrared light IR irradiation between the first state and the second state. Subsequently, an output image is generated so as to represent one from among the position, size, and shape based on the difference and/or ratio with respect to the pixel values for each pixel between the first image and the second image.

A scatterometry measurement system includes an objective lens with a central obscuration and an illumination source configured to illuminate a scatterometry target through the objective lens with a first illumination beam at a first illumination angle and a second illumination beam at a second illumination angle in which the scatterometry target includes periodic structures located in at least two layers. The objective lens collects at least one diffracted order from the first illumination beam and at least one diffracted order from the second illumination beam such that the at least one diffracted order from the first illumination beam and the at least one diffracted order from the second illumination beam have a non-overlapping distribution in a portion of an imaging pupil plane not blocked by the central obscuration.

Provided is a highly accurate imaging technology that utilizes the speckle interference. The present technology provides a speckle imaging device including: an irradiation condition setting unit that sets an irradiation condition for coherent light with which an imaging object is irradiated; an imaging unit that captures scattered light obtained from the imaging object irradiated with the coherent light; an image generation unit that generates a speckle-enhanced image from a captured image captured by the imaging unit; and a leveling processing unit that generates a leveled speckle image from speckle-enhanced images corresponding to two or more different irradiation conditions.

Apparatus and methods for forming an image of an object which involves focusing partially to fully spatially-coherent radiation onto a sample and collecting the resulting scattered radiation (the “standard data set”) on an array detector. In addition to the standard dataset, an additional measurement or plurality of measurements is made of a relatively-unscattered beam, using the array detector, which comprises the “modulus enforced probe (MEP) dataset”. This MEP dataset serves as an extra constraint, called the MEP constraint, in the phase retrieval algorithm used to reconstruct the image of the object.

A method of determining electromagnetic scattering properties of a finite periodic structure has the steps: 1002: Calculating a single-cell contrast current density, within a unit-cell supporting domain of a single one of a finite collection of unit cells. 1004: Calculating a scattered electric field outside the finite collection of unit cells, by integrating, over the single unit cell's supporting domain, a Green's function with the determined single-cell contrast current density. 1006: The Green's function is obtained for observation points outside the finite collection of unit cells by summation across the finite collection of unit cells. The Green's function integrated with the determined single-cell contrast current density is obtained for observation points above the supporting domain with respect to a substrate underlying the finite periodic structure. 1008: Determining an electromagnetic scattering property, for example a diffraction pattern, of the finite periodic structure using the calculated scattered electric field.

Disclosed is an illumination source for generating measurement radiation for an inspection apparatus. The source generates at least first measurement radiation and second measurement radiation such that the first measurement radiation and the second measurement radiation interfere to form combined measurement radiation modulated with a beat component. The illumination source may be a HHG source. Also disclosed is an inspection apparatus comprising such a source and an associated inspection method.

Laser light is emitted from a laser into a scattering layer. An ultrasound signal is emitted into a sample. A signal is generated with a light detector in response to a measurement beam of laser light exiting the light scattering layer into the light detector. At least a portion of the measurement beam formed between the laser and the light detector is wavelength-shifted by the ultrasound signal subsequent to the ultrasound signal propagating through the sample.

Provided is a microorganism detection apparatus including a body, a sample accommodator module provided in the body to accommodate a sample, a beam irradiation module for irradiating a beam to the sample, a sensor module for detecting speckles generated when the beam irradiated to the sample is scattered due to motion of bacteria or microorganisms included in the sample, and a controller for controlling the beam irradiated from the beam irradiation module, and storing and analyzing images detected by the sensor module, wherein the sample accommodator module includes a sample accommodation block having a sample hole capable of accommodating a container containing the sample, and a heater for supplying heat to the bacteria or microorganisms in the sample at a preset temperature.

A system and methods for OCD metrology are provided including receiving multiple first sets of scatterometric data, dividing each set into k sub-vectors, and training, in a self-supervised manner, k2 auto-encoder neural networks that map each of the k sub-vectors to each other. Subsequently multiple respective sets of reference parameters and multiple corresponding second sets of scatterometric data are received and a transfer neural network (NN) is trained. Initial layers include a parallel arrangement of the k2 encoder neural networks. Target output of the transfer NN training is set to the multiple sets of reference parameters and feature input is set to the multiple corresponding second sets of scatterometric data, such that the transfer NN is trained to estimate new wafer pattern parameters from subsequently measured sets of scatterometric data.