Patent ID: 7812959

Claim:
A digital holographic microscope comprising: an electromagnetic emitting source configured to emit a beam of electromagnetic energy; and a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer, comprising: a first beam splitter configured to split the beam of electromagnetic energy into a first beam of electromagnetic energy and a second beam of electromagnetic energy along two predetermined beam paths; a first reflective element configured to accept the first beam of electromagnetic energy and reflect said beam substantially without signal degradation to an objective prism; a second reflective element configured to accept the second beam of electromagnetic energy and reflect said beam substantially without signal degradation to a second beam splitter; the objective prism designed to accept the first beam of electromagnetic energy and reflect the electromagnetic energy, wherein: the electromagnetic energy is reflected through total internal reflection when a specimen in not present to the second beam splitter; and the electromagnetic energy is reflected through frustrated total internal reflection when a specimen is placed on the hypotenuse of the objective prism; the second beam splitter configured to recombine the the first and second beams of electromagnetic energy.