An Inexpensive Portable Self-Reference Module for Digital Holographic Microscopy

This paper describes a novel optical system that can be integrated to the image port of an existing brightfield microscope in order to enhance the microscope with the features of digital holographic microscopy. The proposed system is modular and portable. It is relatively inexpensive and robust to vibrations due to its compact design. An additional benefit is that the system does not need to undergo path-length realignment if the sample is changed, unlike several other architectures. The module is based on a square in-line Mach–Zender architecture but achieves the off-axis condition using two sets of wedge prism pairs. This design offers a significant advantage over competing Mach–Zender nearly common-path modules in terms of path length matching of object and reference wavefields for the case of low-temporal coherence sources, which are preferable for low noise phase imaging. An additional advantage that the proposed system has when compared with similar modules is the facility to continuously vary the tilt angles of the object and reference wavefields that are incident on the sensor, which enables the module to be readily adapted to any given microscope and camera. We provide a detailed overview of the module design and construction. Experimental results are demonstrated on a micro-lens array as well as buccal epithelial cells. We also provide a detailed discussion on the relationship between the proposed self-reference module and related common-path and nearly common-path holographic modules that have previously been proposed in the literature