System, method and apparatus for contrast enhanced multiplexing of images

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9360611-B2
Application number	US-201013500461-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2010
Priority date	Oct 9, 2009
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A volume holographic imaging system, apparatus and/or method enables the projection of a two-dimensional (2D) slice of a four-dimensional (4D) probing object A 4D probing source object is illuminated to emit or scatter an optical field. A holographic element having one or more recorded holograms receives and diffracts the optical field into a diffracted plane beam having spectral information. A 4-ftelecentric relay system includes a pupil filter on the relayed conjugate plane of the volume hologram and images the pupil of the volume hologram onto the front focal plane of the collector lens. A collector lens focuses the diffracted plane beam to a 2D slice of the 4D probing source object. The focused 2D slice is projected onto a 2D imaging plane. The holographic element may have multiple multiplexed holograms that are arranged to diffract light from the corresponding slice of the 4D probing source object.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A microscope comprising:
an objective lens for receiving and collimating electromagnetic radiation emitted or scattered from an object of interest;
a volume hologram with one or more multiplexed holographic gratings to receive and diffract the collimated electromagnetic radiation;
a relay system to receive and relay the diffracted collimated electromagnetic radiation from the volume hologram to a relayed conjugate plane of the volume hologram's pupil;
a pupil filter located at the relayed conjugate plane of the volume hologram's pupil to receive and filter the relayed collimated electromagnetic radiation from the relay system; and
a focusing lens to focus onto an imaging plane the collimated electromagnetic radiation that passes through the pupil filter, and
wherein the pupil filter is disposed along the optical path between the relay system and the focusing lens.

2. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the pupil filter is an opaque mask.

3. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the pupil filter is a gray scale mask.

4. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the volume hologram is recorded in phenanthrenquinone doped poly methyl methacrylate.

5. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the volume hologram has two or more multiplexed holographic gratings.

6. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the microscope simultaneously projects an image associated with each holographic grating onto the imaging plane.

7. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the volume hologram diffraction of the received collimated electromagnetic radiation is based on one or more Bragg properties.

8. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein the relay system is a 4-f telecentric relay system.

9. The microscope of claim 1 , further comprising a source of electromagnetic radiation.

10. A volume imaging system for imaging a source object comprising:
a transmissive holographic element having multiplexed holographic gratings recorded therein, the hologram element configured to receive and diffract an optical field emitted or scattered from the source object into one or more diffracted plane beams;
collector optics configured to:
focus each of the one or more diffracted plane beams to a two-dimensional slice of the source object; and
project the focused two-dimensional slice along an optical path onto an imaging plane; and

a pupil filter disposed along the optical path at a conjugate plane of the transmissive holographic element's pupil to eliminate the DC component in the spatial frequency domain of the focused two-dimensional slice of the source object, the pupil filter being an opaque mask or a gray scale mask.

11. The volume imaging system of claim 10 , wherein the holographic element diffracts the optical field emitted or scattered from the source object based on one or more Bragg properties.

12. The volume imaging system of claim 10 , wherein the collector optics includes an imaging lens.

13. The volume imaging system of claim 12 , wherein the collector optics includes a 4-f telecentric relay system.

14. The volume imaging system of claim 13 , further comprising, a source of electromagnetic radiation.

15. The volume imaging system of claim 14 , wherein the volume imaging system is configured to simultaneously diffract an optical field from each slice of the source object to a non-overlapping region of the imaging plane.

16. The volume imaging system of claim 15 , wherein the source object is defined in four-dimensional space and real time.

17. A method for imaging an object in four-dimensions and real time comprising:
receiving an emitted or scattered optical field of an object in a transmissive holographic element;
diffracting the received optical field in the holographic element to one or more diffracted plane beams;
forming the Fourier transform of the one or more diffracted plane beams at an intermediate plane;
filtering the Fourier transform of the one or more diffracted plane beams of the object using a pupil filter located at a conjugate plane of the transmissive holographic element, the pupil filter being an opaque mask or a gray scale mask; and
projecting the filtered Fourier transform of the one or more diffracted plane beams onto an imaging plane.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the pupil filter eliminates the DC component in the spatial frequency domain of the Fourier transform of the one or more diffracted plane beams of the object.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the forming step is performed using relay lenses.

20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising the step of processing the emitted or scattered optical field through objective optics.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the objective optics comprises a collimating lens configured to collimate the emitted or scattered optical field.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the objective optics is part of the holographic element.

23. The method of claim 17 wherein the diffraction by the holographic element is based on one or more Bragg properties.

Assignees

• Barbastathis George
• Luo Yuan
• Oh Se Baek
• Barton Jennifer K
• Kostuk Raymond K
• Massachusetts Inst Technology
• Univ Arizona State

Inventors

• Barbastathis George
• Luo Yuan
• Oh Se Baek
• Barton Jennifer K
• Kostuk Raymond K

Classifications

• G03H2210/45

  Representation of the decomposed object · CPC title

• G03H1/041

  Optical element in the object space affecting the object beam, not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G03H1/0248

  Volume holograms · CPC title

• G03H2001/0033

  in hologrammetry for measuring or analysing · CPC title

• G03H2001/266

  Wavelength multiplexing · CPC title