Date/Time
Date(s) - 14/11/2012
12:00 pm1:00 pm
Location
Loeb G70, MBL
Category(ies)
Abstract/Image:
Many biological processes – such as the transport and interactions of small biomolecules in the heterogeneous cellular landscape, and the signaling of neurons in living, moving, organisms – are very fast and very challenging to image in 3D. We have designed a multi-focus imaging system that can be appended to a fluorescence microsocope to produce instant 3D images, each consisting of a simultaneously formed “focus stack” of 2D images arranged in an array on the camera. The central optical component of the MFM is a specially designed phase-only diffractive grating, placed in the microscope Fourier plane. This grating splits the sample emission light into a set of diffractive orders, and applies an aberration-free refocusing function to each order. Each diffractive order of the grating thus forms one focal plane of the multi-focus image. To allow non-monochromatic imaging despite using a diffractive element, we have designed an optical module that reverse the chromatic dispersion of the multi-focus grating. Our system allows fast and sensitive 3D, multi-color imaging deep into living samples.