Single-shot isotropic differential interference contrast microscopy

Xinwei Wang; Hao Wang; Jinlu Wang; Xingsi Liu; Huijie Hao; You Sin Tan; Yilei Zhang; He Zhang; Xiangyan Ding; Weisong Zhao; Yuhang Wang; Zhengang Lu; Jian Liu; Joel K W Yang; Jiubin Tan; Haoyu Li; Cheng-Wei Qiu; Guangwei Hu; Xumin Ding

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37606-6

Single-shot isotropic differential interference contrast microscopy

Nat Commun. 2023 Apr 12;14(1):2063. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37606-6.

Authors

Xinwei Wang^#^{1

2}, Hao Wang^#³, Jinlu Wang^#⁴, Xingsi Liu⁵, Huijie Hao¹, You Sin Tan³, Yilei Zhang^{6

7}, He Zhang¹, Xiangyan Ding¹, Weisong Zhao¹, Yuhang Wang⁸, Zhengang Lu^{6

7}, Jian Liu^{1

7}, Joel K W Yang^{3

9}, Jiubin Tan^{1

6

7}, Haoyu Li¹⁰, Cheng-Wei Qiu¹¹, Guangwei Hu¹², Xumin Ding^{13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Microscopy and Instrumentation Research Center, School of Instrumentation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China.
² School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
³ Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, 487372, Singapore.
⁴ Department of Medical Oncology, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, Heilongjiang, China.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117583, Singapore.
⁶ Center of Ultra-Precision Optoelectronic Instrument engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China.
⁷ Key Lab of Ultra-Precision Intelligent Instrumentation (Harbin Institute of Technology), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin, 150080, China.
⁸ College of Mechanical and Electrical engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, Heilongjiang, China.
⁹ Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 2 Fusionopolis Way, Singapore, 138634, Singapore.
¹⁰ Advanced Microscopy and Instrumentation Research Center, School of Instrumentation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China. lihaoyu@hit.edu.cn.
¹¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117583, Singapore. chengwei.qiu@nus.edu.sg.
¹² School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore. guangwei.hu@ntu.edu.sg.
¹³ Advanced Microscopy and Instrumentation Research Center, School of Instrumentation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China. xuminding@hit.edu.cn.
¹⁴ Key Lab of Ultra-Precision Intelligent Instrumentation (Harbin Institute of Technology), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin, 150080, China. xuminding@hit.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy allows high-contrast, low-phototoxicity, and label-free imaging of transparent biological objects, and has been applied in the field of cellular morphology, cell segmentation, particle tracking, optical measurement and others. Commercial DIC microscopy based on Nomarski or Wollaston prism resorts to the interference of two polarized waves with a lateral differential offset (shear) and axial phase shift (bias). However, the shear generated by these prisms is limited to the rectilinear direction, unfortunately resulting in anisotropic contrast imaging. Here we propose an ultracompact metasurface-assisted isotropic DIC (i-DIC) microscopy based on a grand original pattern of radial shear interferometry, that converts the rectilinear shear into rotationally symmetric along radial direction, enabling single-shot isotropic imaging capabilities. The i-DIC presents a complementary fusion of typical meta-optics, traditional microscopes and integrated optical system, and showcases the promising and synergetic advancements in edge detection, particle motion tracking, and label-free cellular imaging.