Scanning color optical tomography (SCOT)

Abstract

We have developed an interferometric optical microscope that provides three-dimensional refractive index map of a specimen by scanning the color of three illumination beams. Our design of the interferometer allows for simultaneous measurement of the scattered fields (both amplitude and phase) of such a complex input beam. By obviating the need for mechanical scanning of the illumination beam or detection objective lens; the proposed method can increase the speed of the optical tomography by orders of magnitude. We demonstrate our method using polystyrene beads of known refractive index value and live cells. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America