Fast hyperspectral phase and amplitude imaging in scattering tissue

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Microscopy Techniques
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Hyperspectral imaging of scattering biological tissues faces challenges due to low light collection efficiency.
• Existing methods often struggle to provide high-resolution spectral and amplitude information from thick samples.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel hyperspectral microscope design for enhanced imaging of scattering tissues.
• To achieve high throughput and high spectral resolution for analyzing thick biological samples.

Main Methods:

• The proposed microscope integrates Fourier transform spectroscopy with oblique back-illumination microscopy.
• It is designed for high-throughput acquisition of hyperspectral phase and amplitude images.
• The system operates over a broad spectral range (450-1700 nm) with spectral resolution < 200 cm⁻¹.

Main Results:

• The system demonstrates high throughput imaging at rates exceeding 0.1 Hz.
• Proof-of-principle experiments were conducted on chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane.
• High-resolution hemodynamics imaging in thick tissue was achieved using transmission contrast.

Conclusions:

• The developed hyperspectral microscope offers a significant advancement for imaging scattering tissues.
• It enables high-resolution, high-throughput analysis of tissue hemodynamics.
• This technology holds promise for various biomedical applications requiring deep tissue spectral imaging.