Systems and methods of polyfocal hyperspectral imaging having a beam splitter with optical channels respectively corresponding to plural image planes

An optical imaging system having a plurality of image planes, the system comprising:

• a microscope configured to image an object to a first plane;
• a spectral device having an input and output and adapted to receive, at the input, an image formed by the microscope at the first plane and to produce, at the output, a light distribution comprising spatially-coded spectral content of the image formed by the microscope at the first plane;
• and
• a beam-splitter device in optical communication with the spectral device, the beam-splitter device having an input optical axis, including a plurality of optical channels respectively corresponding to the plurality of image planes, each of the optical channels from the plurality of the optical channels being adapted to re-image the light distribution onto a corresponding image plane such as to form a corresponding image representing a corresponding layer of the object located at a corresponding depth within the object.