High-precision microscopic phase imaging without phase unwrapping for cancer cell identification

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Cell Biology
• Interferometry

Background:

• Accurate cell identification is crucial for disease diagnosis.
• Existing cell phase measurement techniques can be complex and require phase unwrapping.
• Developing high-precision, user-friendly systems is essential for advancing cell analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a high-precision cell phase measurement system for cell identification.
• To investigate the system's capability in distinguishing between cancer and normal cells.
• To demonstrate a Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based approach without phase unwrapping.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a phase-locking technique.
• Measured changes in optical path length as the sample was scanned across the optical axis.
• Achieved spatial resolution below 1.1 μm and optical path length difference sensitivity below 2 nm.

Main Results:

• Successfully implemented a cell phase measurement system without requiring phase unwrapping.
• Demonstrated the system's ability to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.
• Preliminary experiments showed significant differences in optical path length between cell types.

Conclusions:

• The developed Mach-Zehnder interferometer system provides high-precision cell phase measurements.
• This technique shows significant potential for accurate cancer cell identification.
• The system's non-requirement for phase unwrapping simplifies cell analysis.