Angularly resolved polarization microscopy for birefringent materials with Fourier ptychography.

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Materials Science
• Biophysics

Background:

• Polarization light microscopy is crucial for structural imaging.
• Current methods are limited to fixed illumination angles, restricting sensitivity to polarization properties along the optical axis.
• Resolving angular polarization properties is essential for comprehensive material characterization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for angularly resolving polarization properties of birefringent materials.
• To quantitatively retrieve the spatial variation of index ellipsoids.
• To achieve spatial super-resolution in polarization imaging.

Main Methods:

• Fourier ptychography microscopy adapted for angularly resolved polarization properties.
• Development of an adequate formalism for the Fourier ptychography forward model.
• Unsupervised deep neural network for solving the inverse problem, leveraging automatic differentiation and regularization.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated feasibility of the novel method through simulated results.
• Quantitative retrieval of spatial variations in index ellipsoids.
• Achieved spatial super-resolution in polarization imaging.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method enables angularly resolved polarization imaging of birefringent materials.
• Deep neural networks provide an efficient solution for complex inverse problems in polarization microscopy.
• This technique offers enhanced structural information beyond conventional polarization microscopy.