Patent ID: 9684282
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: G02B,G03H

Claim:
1. A microscope comprising: an objective lens for receiving and collimating optical electromagnetic radiation from an illuminated source object of interest; a multiplexed volume hologram with a first wavelength-coded holographic grating and a second wavelength-coded holographic grating to receive and diffract collimated optical electromagnetic radiation from the objective lens, the first wavelength-coded holographic grating configured to diffract light at a first wavelength emitted or scattered from a selected first depth of the source object into a beam diffracted at a first angle with respect to the multiplexed volume hologram, the second wavelength-coded holographic grating configured to diffract light at a second wavelength emitted or scattered from a selected second depth of the source object into a beam diffracted at a second angle with respect to the multiplexed volume hologram with the first wavelength being different from the second wavelength and the first angle being different from the second angle, wherein the selected first depth of the source object corresponds to a first focal plane determined by a first location of a point source generated from a single light source during recordation of the first holographic grating; wherein the selected second depth of the source object corresponds to a second focal plane determined by a second location of the point source generated from the single light source during recordation of the second holographic grating; wherein the first holographic grating corresponding to the first focal plane is coded for reconstruction by the first wavelength of light and the second holographic grating corresponding to the second focal plane is coded for reconstruction by the second wavelength of light; wherein an angle of a signal beam with respect to a reference beam was different during recordation of the second holographic grating than during recordation of the first holographic grating and an angle of the volume hologram with respect to the reference beam was different during recordation of the second holographic grating than during recordation of the first holographic grating; and a focusing element configured to focus the diffracted beams from the first and the second grating onto an imaging plane forming corresponding images of two-dimensional slices of the object taken at the first object depth corresponding to the first focal plane and the second object depth corresponding to the second focal plane with the images occupying different positions on the imaging plane.