Synthetic optical holography
AssigneesAsociación Centre De Investigación Cooperativa en Nanociencias, CIC Nanogune, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
InventorsMartin Schnell, Rainer Hillenbrand, Paul Scott Carney
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for imaging a phase or amplitude that characterizes a scattered field emanating from a physical medium. A local probe is stepped to a plurality of successive probe positions and illuminated with an illuminating beam, while a specified phase function is imposed on a reference beam relative to the illuminating beam. A field associated with the scattered field is superimposed with the reference beam and the detection of both yields a detected signal which is recorded as a function of probe position in order to obtain a hologram. The holograph is transformed, filtered, and retransformed to generate an image. Alternatively, the illuminating beam may directly illuminate successive positions of the physical medium.
Claims58
A method for imaging at least one of a phase and an amplitude characterizing a scattered field emanating from a sample, the method comprising:
- a. sequentially scanning a parameter characterizing the sample to a plurality of successive loci of a hologram dimension;
- b. illuminating the sample with a focusing illuminating beam;
- c. imposing a specified phase function on a reference beam relative to the illuminating beam;
- d. superimposing with the reference beam a field associated with the scattered field;
- e. detecting the superimposed reference beam and field associated with the scattered field for each locus to produce a detected signal;
- f. recording the detected signal as a function of locus in order to obtain a hologram;
- and
- g. processing the hologram to generate an image of at least one of phase and amplitude associated with the scattered field.
An apparatus for imaging at least one of a phase and an amplitude characterizing a scattered field emanating from a sample, the apparatus comprising:
- a. a scanner, selected from the group consisting of a mechanical scanner, a temperature scanner and a magnetic field scanner, for sequentially scanning a parameter characterizing the sample to a plurality of successive loci of a hologram dimension;
- b. a source for generating an illuminating beam;
- c. a phase modulator for imposing a specified phase function on a reference beam relative to the illuminating beam;
- d. a detector for detecting the reference beam and a field associated with the scattered field to generate a detector signal;
- and
- e. a processor for processing the detected signal to generate an image of at least one of phase and amplitude associated with the scattered field.
A method for recording a hologram, the method comprising:
- a. sequentially scanning a parameter characterizing the sample to a plurality of successive loci of a hologram dimension;
- b. illuminating the sample with a focusing illuminating beam;
- c. imposing a specified phase function on a reference beam relative to the illuminating beam;
- d. superimposing with the reference beam a field associated with the scattered field;
- e. detecting the superimposed reference beam and field associated with the scattered field for each locus to produce a detected signal;
- and
- f. recording the detected signal as a function of locus in order to obtain a hologram.
An apparatus for recording a hologram, the apparatus comprising:
- a. a scanner, selected from the group consisting of a mechanical scanner, a temperature scanner and a magnetic field scanner, for sequentially scanning a parameter characterizing the sample to a plurality of successive loci of a hologram dimension;
- b. a source for generating an illuminating beam;
- c. a phase modulator for imposing a specified phase function on a reference beam relative to the illuminating beam;
- d. a detector for detecting the reference beam and a field associated with the scattered field to generate a detector signal;
- and
- e. a processor adapted for recording the detected signal as a function of locus thereby generating a hologram.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.