Software Development for Realtime Spatial Light Interference Microscopy

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an emerging field biology aimed at studying weakly scattering and absorbing specimens. Spatial light interference microscopy is a white-light based common-path QPI method with sensitivity approaching that of force sensing methods. This setup is unique in that collation occurs digitally, converting the challenges faced by optical alignment, instability, and toxicity, into computational workload. By collating images with varied phase shifts using a liquid crystal phase modulator (LCPM), it is possible to create a topological map of a transparent specimen. However, due to the temporal acquisition of the frames to extract the map, the speed is limited due to the LCPM and the camera. We have incorporated a fast LCPM and a fast sCMOS camera to increase the speed such that the phase map retrieval will be possible in real time. To this end, my thesis centers on scaling, automating and synchronizing the image acquisition and analyzing process and also developing a user interface to facilitate ongoing and future studies.unpublishednot peer reviewedU of I OnlyUndergraduate senior thesis not recommended for open acces