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In digital holographic interferometry (DHI), coherent noise degrades accuracy of phase information. We present multi-beam polarization DHI in which two cross polarized interferograms are recorded. Fourier analysis of interferograms reduces coherent noise and increases accuracy.

We demonstrate results for phase maps of biological cells using white-light and multi-spectral interference microscopy. Study on comparison of phase maps reconstructed using 1-CCD and 3- CCD is presented to reduce color cross-talk and improved resolution.

A spatially low coherent light source is synthesized to reduce the spatial phase noise in the laser based digital holographic microscope, which otherwise introduces unwanted spatial phase, subsequently, the height measurement error of the biological objects.

A spectrally resolved white light interferometry is demonstrated using a discrete spectrum light sources (i.e., RGB LEDs) and monochrome CCD camera for the multi-color quantitative phase imaging of biological cells without color cross talk.

We report white light phase shifting interferometry in conjunction with color fringe analysis for the detection of contaminants in water such as Escherichia coli (E.coli), Campylobacter coli and Bacillus cereus. The experimental setup is based on a common path interferometer using Mirau interferometric objective lens. White light interferograms are recorded using a 3-chip color CCD camera based on prism technology. The 3-chip color camera have lesser color cross talk and better spatial resolution in comparison to single chip CCD camera. A piezo-electric transducer (PZT) phase shifter is fixed with the Mirau objective and they are attached with a conventional microscope. Five phase shifted white light interferograms are recorded by the 3-chip color CCD camera and each phase shifted interferogram is decomposed into the red, green and blue constituent colors, thus making three sets of five phase shifted intererograms for three different colors from a single set of white light interferogram. This makes the system less time consuming and have lesser effect due to surrounding environment. Initially 3D phase maps of the bacteria are reconstructed for red, green and blue wavelengths from these interferograms using MATLAB, from these phase maps we determines the refractive index (RI) of the bacteria. Experimental results of 3D shape measurement and RI at multiple wavelengths will be presented. These results might find applications for detection of contaminants in water without using any chemical processing and fluorescent dyes.

This paper describes a new and novel phase shifting technique for qualitative as well as quantitative measurement in microscopy. We have developed a phase shifting device which is robust, inexpensive and involves no mechanical movement. In this method, phase shifting is implemented using LED array, beam splitters and defocused projection of Ronchi grating. The light from the LEDs are made incident on the beam splitters at spatially different locations. Due to variation in the geometrical distances of LEDs from the Ronchi grating and by sequentially illuminating the grating by switching on one LED at a time the phase shifted grating patterns are generated. The phase shifted structured patterns are projected onto the sample using microscopic objective lens. The phase shifted deformed patterns are recorded by a CCD camera. The initial alignment of the setup involves a simple procedure for the calibration for equal fringe width and intensity such that the phase shifted fringes are at equal phase difference. Three frame phase shifting algorithm is employed for the reconstruction of the phase map. The method described here is fully automated so that the phase shifted images are recorded just by switching of LEDs and has been used for the shape measurement of microscopic industrial objects. The analysis of the phase shifted images provides qualitative as well as quantitative information about the sample. Thus, the method is simple, robust and low cost compared to PZT devices commonly employed for phase shifting.

We present a single-shot white light interference microscopy for the quantitative phase imaging (QPI) of biological cells and tissues. A common path white light interference microscope is developed and colorful white light interferogram is recorded by three-chip color CCD camera. The recorded white light interferogram is decomposed into the red, green and blue color wavelength component interferograms and processed it to find out the RI for different color wavelengths. The decomposed interferograms are analyzed using local model fitting (LMF)" algorithm developed for reconstructing the phase map from single interferogram. LMF is slightly off-axis interferometric QPI method which is a single-shot method that employs only a single image, so it is fast and accurate. The present method is very useful for dynamic process where path-length changes at millisecond level. From the single interferogram a wavelength-dependent quantitative phase imaging of human red blood cells (RBCs) are reconstructed and refractive index is determined. The LMF algorithm is simple to implement and is efficient in computation. The results are compared with the conventional phase shifting interferometry and Hilbert transform techniques.