Microlens array snapshot hyperspectral microscopy system for the biomedical domain
Changben Yu, Jin Yang, Nannan Song, Ci Sun, Mingjia Wang, Shulong Feng
Abstract
We propose a microlens array-type snapshot hyperspectral microscope system that can provide spatial spectrum sampling according to detector frame rates for the biomedical domain. The system uses a shared optical path design. One path is used to perform direct microscopic imaging with high spatial resolution, while the other is used to collect microscopic images through a microlens array; the images are then spatially cut and reimaged such that they are spaced simultaneously by the prism-grating type hyperspectral imager’s dispersion. Rapid acquisition of a three-dimensional data cube measuring <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>28</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>14</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>180</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>x</mml:mi> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mi>y</mml:mi> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mi>λ</mml:mi> </mml:math> ) can be performed at the detector’s frame rate. The system has a spatial resolution of 2.5 µm and can achieve 180-channel sampling of a 100 nm spectrum in the 400–800 nm spectral range with spectral resolution of approximately 0.56 nm. Spectral imaging results from biological samples show that the microlens array-type snapshot hyperspectral microscope system may potentially be applied in real-time biological spectral imaging.