Instrument: Digital inline holographic microscope

A Digital Inline Holographic Microscope (DIHM) uses coherent (laser) light and a digital camera to image objects with micrometer scale resolution. A portion of the light scattered by illuminated objects interferes with incident light in a predictable manner. The resulting interference patterns projected onto a two-dimensional plane (i.e. digital camera sensor) are recorded as holograms. These digital holograms are then numerically reconstructed to produce an in-focus image at a given distance from the recording plane. A relatively large illuminated volume (>100 mL) can be reconstructed in this manner to produce a single image with an extended depth of field.