This paper describes a computational imaging platform to determine the orientation of anisotropic optical probes under differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. We established a deep-learning model based on data sets of DIC images collected from metal nanoparticle optical probes at different orientations. This model predicted the in-plane angle of gold nanorods with an error below 20°, the inherent limit of the DIC method. Using low-symmetry gold nanostars as optical probes, we demonstrated the detection of in-plane particle orientation in the full 0-360° range. We also showed that orientation predictions of the same particle were consistent even with variations in the imaging background. Finally, the deep-learning model was extended to enable simultaneous prediction of in-plane and out-of-plane rotation angles for a multibranched nanostar by concurrent analysis of DIC images measured at multiple wavelengths.
© 2020 American Chemical Society.