Polarization-sensitive interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 107; no. 21; p. 211106
• Main Authors: South, Fredrick A, Liu, Yuan-Zhi, Xu, Yang, Shemonski, Nathan D, Carney, P Scott, Boppart, Stephen A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 23.11.2015
• ISSN: 0003-6951
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4936236

Three-dimensional optical microscopy suffers from the well-known compromise between transverse resolution and depth-of-field. This is true for both structural imaging methods and their functional extensions. Interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM) is a solution to the 3D coherent microscopy inverse problem that provides depth-independent transverse resolution. We demonstrate the extension of ISAM to polarization sensitive imaging, termed polarization-sensitive interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (PS-ISAM). This technique is the first functionalization of the ISAM method and provides improved depth-of-field for polarization-sensitive imaging. The basic assumptions of polarization-sensitive imaging are explored, and refocusing of birefringent structures is experimentally demonstrated. PS-ISAM enables high-resolution volumetric imaging of birefringent materials and tissue.