Patent ID: 8115992
Filing Date: 2012-02-14
Classification: G02B,G06T

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for microscopy comprising: an object plane on which is disposed a first surface of a substrate, wherein the substrate is characterized by a homogeneous refractive index and a surface normal and wherein the substrate is arranged to support an object; a first optical system disposed to provide a substantially coherent illumination of the object plane, the illumination characterized by a wavelength λ and a radius of curvature and disposed at one of a plurality of incident wave vectors from about 0 to about 2π/λ with respect to the surface normal of the substrate and at a plurality of azimuth angles spanning 0 to 2π; a second optical system disposed to collect portions of the illumination scattered from the object plane, the second optical system having an optical axis disposed at one of a plurality of angles from about 0 to about π with respect to the surface normal of the substrate and at the azimuth angle corresponding to the illumination of the first optical system, wherein the second optical system is characterized by a numerical aperture; a third optical system disposed between the first optical system and an entrance aperture of a first optical element of the second optical system to provide interferometric reintroduction of a portion of the coherent illumination as a reference beam into the second optical system, wherein each of an amplitude, a phase, a radius of curvature, a path length, and an angle of incidence of the reference beam is adjusted such that a correct reference beam is present at an image plane of the second optical system; an electronic image device disposed at the image plane of the second optical system that responds linearly to a local optical intensity and transfers a local optical intensity map across the image plane as a sub-image to a signal processor device in electronic form; a set of devices for adjusting the first, the second, and the third optical systems to collect sub-images for different pairs of the pluralities of incident illumination wave vectors from the first optical system and collection angles from the vectors from the second optical system so as to sequentially obtain a plurality of sub-images corresponding to a plurality of regions of spatial frequency space; and the signal processor device arranged to sequentially receive the electronic form of the sub-images and manipulate the sub-images to correct for distortions and alterations introduced by the optical configuration, store, and combine the plurality of sub-images corresponding to the plurality of regions of spatial frequency space to create a composite image.