A light source device connected to an optical fiber and emit light from the optical fiber, the device includes: a plurality of laser light sources to respectively emit light at different wavelengths; a current source to supply a drive current with a superimposed alternating-current component to each laser light source; a light source control section to selectively switch the laser light sources by controlling the current sources; a plurality of optical systems disposed in optical paths of the respective laser light sources to reflect the light from the respective laser light sources to an incident end of the optical fiber and to reflect return light reflected on the incident end to the respective laser light sources; and a return light adjustment section to adjust an amount of the return light to continuously spread a spectrum of the light emitted from the optical fiber.

The present disclosure relates to improved holographic reconstruction device and a method. In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to improved holographic reconstruction device and method that can measure a digital hologram regardless of optical characteristics of an object to be measured, by an all-in-one type system integrating a transmissive system that measures an object transmitting light and a reflective system that measures an object reflecting light.

The invention relates to an interferometric method, in which the light scattered by an object is imaged onto an electronic camera, wherein a sample light component is assigned to scattering sites on a sectional face in the interior of the object. This sample light component can be separated from the contributions of the other sample light components by processing of the camera image and leads to a sectional image. A particular advantage of the invention lies in the fact that multiple parallel sectional faces can be exposed sequentially at predetermined intervals from each other in the interior of the object. Such a sequence of sectional images can be used to calculate a solid model of the object.

An apparatus for viewing a biological sample that functions as both a microscope and an interferometer. A short-coherence light source directs light onto the sample. A Fourier transform lens and a pixel-array detector are positioned to collect light scattered by the sample. An optic fiber assembly conveys a reference beam from the short-coherence light source. The detector collects the reference beam and the signal beam and uses coherence gating to acquire interferometric image data. In some embodiments the axis of the incident light striking the sample and the axis of collected scattered signal light form an angle of less than 180 degrees and advantageously an angle between 120 and 150 degrees. A method of converting a microscope into an interferometer is also disclosed.

An example system includes a master oscillator that provides a master oscillator beam, a first fiber beam splitter that splits the master oscillator beam into a first branch and a second branch, a second fiber beam splitter that splits the first branch into an imaging branch and an amplified characteristic branch, and a compensation branch mixer that mixes the second branch and the amplified characteristic branch into a compensation branch. The example system includes transmission optics that direct the imaging branch to a target location, an imaging mixer that mixes the compensation branch and a reflected image from the target location into an imaging signal, and an acquisition device that receives the imaging signal as a final image. An example system optionally includes a mode matching lens that applies a selected wavefront characteristic to the compensation branch.

The present invention relates to a full-field reflection phase microscope. In a preferred embodiment, the invention can combine low-coherence interferometry and off-axis digital holographic microscopy (DHM). The reflection-based DHM provides highly sensitive and a single-shot imaging of cellular dynamics while the use of low coherence source provides a depth-selective measurement. A preferred embodiment of the system uses a diffraction grating in the reference arm to generate an interference image of uniform contrast over the entire field-of-view albeit low-coherence light source. With improved path-length sensitivity, the present invention is suitable for full-field measurement of membrane dynamics in live cells with sub-nanometer-scale sensitivity.

A method for irradiating a medium includes irradiating the medium with an electromagnetic wave which is scattered in the medium and modulated in frequency at a position in the medium; obtaining information corresponding to an interference pattern generated by interference between the modulated electromagnetic wave and a reference wave; and generating a phase conjugate wave, based on the obtained information, which irradiates the medium.

A holographic observation method includes: casting a light beam generated by driving a semiconductor laser light source with an electric current with an alternating-current component superimposed or a light beam having a predetermined spectral width and predetermined spectral intensity to have predetermined coherency to an observation object; forming a hologram by causing a light beam transmitted through or reflected by the observation object to interfere with a reference light beam; and obtaining information on the observation object by performing image processing on the hologram.

A method of analyzing a sample receiving a particle of interest, including: defining a reference point located on a first interface of the sample, or at a known distance from the sample, along the optical axis of the optical system; acquiring a reference image transmission of the sample, the object plane of the optical system being located at a known distance from the reference point along an axis parallel to the optical axis of the optical system, and the particle of interest being located outside of the object plane; using the reference image, digitally constructing a series of reconstructed images, each associated with a predetermined offset of the object plane along the optical axis of the optical system; and using the series of reconstructed images, determining the distance along an axis parallel to the optical axis of the optical system, between the particle of interest and the reference point.

An example system includes a master oscillator that provides a master oscillator beam, a first fiber beam splitter that splits the master oscillator beam into a first branch and a second branch, a second fiber beam splitter that splits the first branch into an imaging branch and an amplified characteristic branch, and a compensation branch mixer that mixes the second branch and the amplified characteristic branch into a compensation branch. The example system includes transmission optics that direct the imaging branch to a target location, an imaging mixer that mixes the compensation branch and a reflected image from the target location into an imaging signal, and an acquisition device that receives the imaging signal as a final image. An example system optionally includes a mode matching lens that applies a selected wavefront characteristic to the compensation branch.