Extending the wavelength range of multi-spectral microscope systems with Fourier ptychography

Abstract

Due to the chromatic dispersion properties inherent in all optical materials, even the best designed multi-spectral objective will exhibit residual chromatic aberration effect. Here we show that the aberration correction ability of Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy (FPM) is well matched and well suited for post-image acquisition correction of these effects to render in-focus images. We show that an objective with significant spectral focal shift (up to 0.02 μm/nm) and spectral field curvature (up to 0.05 μm/nm drift at off-axis position of 800μm) can be computationally corrected to render images with effectively null spectral defocus and field curvature. This approach of combining optical objective design and computational microscopy provides a good strategy for high quality multi-spectral imaging over a broad spectral range, and eliminating the need for mechanical actuation solutions.