Image formation of volume holographic microscopy using point spread functions

Abstract

We present a theoretical formulation to quantify the imaging properties of volume holographic microscopy (VHM). Volume holograms are formed by exposure of a photosensitive recording material to the interference of two mutually coherent optical fields. Recently, it has been shown that a volume holographic pupil has spatial and spectral sectioning capability for fluorescent samples. Here, we analyze the point spread function (PSF) to assess the imaging behavior of the VHM with a point source and detector. The coherent PSF of the VHM is derived, and the results are compared with those from conventional microscopy, and confocal microscopy with point and slit apertures. According to our analysis, the PSF of the VHM can be controlled in the lateral direction by adjusting the parameters of the VH. Compared with confocal microscopes, the performance of the VHM is comparable or even potentially better, and the VHM is also able to achieve real-time and three-dimensional (3D) imaging due to its multiplexing ability. © 2010 SPIE.