Field-portable microsphere-assisted high resolution digital holographic microscopy in compact and 3D-printed Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
Timothy O’Connor, Arun Anand, Bahram Javidi
Abstract
We present a compact and field-portable system for high resolution microsphere-assisted digital holographic microscopy using a 3D-printed Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Microsphere assisted microscopy inserts a glass microsphere between the sample and magnifying objective lens to increase both lateral resolution and magnification factor by acquiring a single hologram. Our system is verified by reconstruction of a grating structure, which has a patterned surface unresolvable by the native imaging system to confirm the resolution enhancement. Furthermore, the system is analyzed for field portability and practically demonstrated for cell visualization and identification by classification of different animal red blood cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a low cost and field-portable system for microsphere-assisted digital holographic microscopy.