Self-interference digital holography with computational aberration correction.

Area of Science:

• Optical Imaging
• Microscopy
• Computational Optics

Background:

• Self-interference digital holography (SIDH) allows 3D imaging of incoherent sources using minimal 2D images.
• Previous work reconstructed point sources with as few as 4,200 photons over a 10 µm axial range.
• Combining SIDH with single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) promises large-axial-range 3D super-resolution imaging without mechanical refocusing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address optical aberrations that degrade SIDH localization performance, particularly for large-volume 3D imaging.
• To introduce a novel, fast, guide-star-free computational method for aberration correction in SIDH.
• To enable aberration correction without additional hardware and under low signal light conditions.

Main Methods:

• A sensorless adaptive optics (AO) approach was employed in a virtual pupil plane.
• Wavefront optimization was performed using a frequency-space metric.
• The method corrects aberrations computationally across the entire imaging axial range.

Main Results:

• Achieved significant improvement in Strehl ratio, reaching approximately 0.98.
• Demonstrated enhanced SIDH localization precision, approaching the ideal theoretical limit.
• Successfully corrected optical aberrations in low signal light conditions.

Conclusions:

• The proposed computational aberration correction method is effective for SIDH.
• This technique significantly improves 3D imaging quality and localization precision in SIDH.
• The method offers a hardware-free solution for aberration correction in large-volume 3D super-resolution microscopy.