Separation of overlapped particles in digital holographic microscopy

Abstract

In this paper, we present a procedure to separate aggregates of overlapped particles in digital holograms, based on a focus plane analysis applied to each particle. The method can be applied either on phase or on amplitude objects, according that each object has a border in one focus plane. Numerical simulations are performed to quantify the robustness of the process by increasing the overlapping areas between the particles. The separation algorithm is successfully demonstrated experimentally on different types of aggregates.