Quantitative phase imaging through an ultra-thin lensless fiber endoscope

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is a label-free technique providing both morphology and quantitative biophysical information in biomedicine. However, applying such a powerful technique to in vivo pathological diagnosis remains challenging. Multi-core fiber bundles (MCFs) enable ultra-thin probes for in vivo imaging, but current MCF imaging techniques are limited to amplitude imaging modalities. We demonstrate a computational lensless microendoscope that uses an ultra-thin bare MCF to perform quantitative phase imaging with microscale lateral resolution and nanoscale axial sensitivity of the optical path length. The incident complex light field at the measurement side is precisely reconstructed from the far-field speckle pattern at the detection side, enabling digital refocusing in a multi-layer sample without any mechanical movement. The accuracy of the quantitative phase reconstruction is validated by imaging the phase target and hydrogel beads through the MCF. With the proposed imaging modality, three-dimensional imaging of human cancer cells is achieved through the ultra-thin fiber endoscope, promising widespread clinical applications.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number204
JournalLight: Science and Applications
Volume11
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jul 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 35790748
WOS 000821034900002
unpaywall 10.1038/s41377-022-00898-2
Mendeley 041db581-0cf2-37f2-883a-9d3bddb7695f