High-resolution fluorescence imaging via pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography

Fluorescence microscopy plays a vital role in modern biological research and clinical diagnosis. Here, we report an imaging approach, termed pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography (FP), for fluorescence imaging beyond the diffraction limit of the employed optics. This approach iteratively recovers a high-resolution fluorescence image from many pattern-illuminated low-resolution intensity measurements. The recovery process starts with one low-resolution measurement as the initial guess. This initial guess is then sequentially updated by other measurements, both in the spatial and Fourier domains. In the spatial domain, we use the pattern-illuminated low-resolution images as intensity constraints for the sample estimate. In the Fourier domain, we use the incoherent optical-transfer-function of the objective lens as the object support constraint for the solution. The sequential updating process is then repeated until the sample estimate converges, typically for 5-20 times. Different from the conventional structured illumination microscopy, any unknown pattern can be used for sample illumination in the reported framework. In particular, we are able to recover both the high-resolution sample image and the unknown illumination pattern at the same time. As a demonstration, we improved the resolution of a conventional fluorescence microscope beyond the diffraction limit of the employed optics. The reported approach may provide an alternative solution for structure illumination microscopy and find applications in wide-field, high-resolution fluorescence imaging.