Single-pixel fluorescent imaging with temporally labeled illumination patterns

Abstract

Most coherent imaging methods, such as holography, cannot be directly applied to fluorescent light emission, because it is spatially incoherent. We introduce coherent holographic image reconstruction by phase transfer (CHIRPT), an imaging technique that transfers the spatial phase of coherent illumination light to temporal modulations of the emitted fluorescence intensity. The spatial phase information encoded in the temporal modulations is exploited to digitally propagate fluorescent light to render two-dimensional images from a temporal signal obtained from a single-pixel photodetector. The image formation mechanism of CHIRPT provides much larger imaging depths of field than conventional imaging, permitting data far away from the focal plane to be digitally refocused.