Polarimetric coherent diffraction imaging

A system for imaging a biological sample, the system comprising:

• a polarizing source assembly configured to provide a source polarized coherent electromagnetic beam to the biological sample;
• a detector assembly configured to capture an intermediate electromagnetic beam from the biological sample, the intermediate electromagnetic beam related to the source polarized coherent electromagnetic beam and to an optical anisotropic property of the biological sample;
• the detector assembly further configured to provide an output electrical signal corresponding to an output electromagnetic beam, the output electromagnetic beam related to the intermediate electromagnetic beam;
• and
• an imaging circuitry configured to generate an image of at least a portion of the biological sample based, at least in part, on the output electrical signal, wherein the generated image corresponds to a map of an anisotropy in a complex refractive index of a cellular structure of the biological sample using coherent diffractive imaging, wherein the output electrical signal corresponds to a plurality of coherent diffraction intensities in which the imaging circuitry is further configured to iterate between real-space and reciprocal space to determine a real-space sample complex wave function, with the real-space image being generated without chemical labeling.