FIP Seminar: Co-hosted with Duke OSA/SPIE Student Optical Chapter "Quantitative Phase Imaging in Biomedicine"

Light scattering limits the quality of optical imaging of unlabeled
specimens: too little scattering and the sample is transparent,
exhibiting low contrast, and too much scattering washes the
structure information altogether. As a result, current instruments,
target specifically either the thin (low-scattering) specimens
or the optically thick (multiply scattering) samples. In 2011 we
developed spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) as a highsensitivity,
high-resolution quantitative phase imaging method,
which open new applications for studying structure and dynamics.
Color SLIM (cSLIM) is a recent development that allows the phase
imaging of stained tissue slices. Using specimens prepared under
the standard protocols in pathology, cSLIM yields simultaneously
the typical image that the pathologist is accustomed to (e.g., H&E,
immunochemical stains, etc.) and a quantitative phase image,
which provides new information, currently not available in bright
field images (e.g., collagen fiber orientation).
However, SLIM works best for thin specimens, such as single
cell layers and tissue slices. To expand this type of imaging to
thick, multiply scattering media, we developed gradient light
interference microcopy (GLIM). GLIM exploits the principle of
low-coherence interferometry to extract phase information, which
in turn yields strong, intrinsic contrast of transparent samples,
such as single cells.