Patent ID: 11920930
Assignee: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  A | IPC A  G

Claim 21:
22. A method of quantifying mechanical properties of a sample, comprising:
operating a first light source emitting light in a first optical band of optical wavelengths to produce (i) a sampling beam that propagates along a sampling-beam path before optically interacting with the sample and (ii) a reference beam;
operating a second light source to produce an optical actuation beam, propagating along an actuation-beam path, at a second optical wavelength different from the wavelengths in the first band;
operating a phase-sensitive low-coherence optical interferometry device to obtain optical images of the sample from optical interference of the sampling beam and the reference beam, in part by scanning, with a scanner that is (i) on the sampling-beam path, (ii) not on the actuation-beam path, the optical sampling beam over the sample without scanning the optical actuation beam;
operating an optical beam shaping module located in an optical path between the second light source and the sample to shape the optical actuation beam into light-sheet;
directing the optical actuation beam shaped into the light-sheet to the sample to actuate mechanical movements of microparticle probes so that the optical images capture first information of the mechanical movements of the microparticle probes; and
using the first information to obtain second information of the mechanical properties of the sample wherein the shaping comprises passing the optical actuation beam through a spatial phase modulator or a non-symmetric optical lens.