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US 7,812,959 B1Granted
Total internal reflection holographic microscope
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorMyung K. Kim
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides for a digital holographic microscope using a holographic interferometer and incorporating a TIR sample mount and microscopic imaging optics. The microscope uses phase shifting from frustrated internal reflection within a prism to measure nanometric distances. The invention also provides for a numerical reconstruction algorithm of an inclined surface of the object/prism.
Claims15
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.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.