DIGITAL HOLOGRAPHIC MICROSCOPE FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL ILLUSTRATION AND METHOD OF USE THEREOF

摘要

The present invention is related to a compact microscope able to work in digital holography for obtaining high quality 3D images of samples, including fluorescent samples and relatively thick samples such as biological samples, said microscope comprising illumination means ( 1,41 ) at least partially spatially coherent for illuminating a sample ( 2 ) to be studied and a differential interferometer ( 5 ) for generating interfering beams from said sample ( 2 ) on the sensor ( 33 ) of an electronic imaging device ( 7 ), said interferometer ( 5 ) comprising namely tilting means ( 17 ) for tilting by a defined angle one of the interfering beams ( 28 or 29 ) relatively to the other, said tilting resulting into a defined shift ( 27 ) of said interfering beam on the sensor of the electronic imaging device ( 7 ), said shift ( 27 ) being smaller than spatial coherence width of each beam, said microscope being able to be quasi totally preadjusted independently from the samples so that minimum additional adjustments are required for obtaining reliable 3D images of samples.