A mulitmodal microscope provides a researcher with the ability to capture images with multiple sources of contrast. Previous attempts at multimodal microscopy have been limited to capturing images at different instruments and digitally registering the images empirically using features common in the specimen. Other multimodal microscopes have combined different microscopy techniques, but have been limited in their sources of contrast. We present a unique microscope which containes 5 different imaging modalities, with four different sources of contrast. Quadrature microscopy measures the phase of the electric field of the light transmitted through an optically transparent specimen, by interference with a reference beam, using a polarimetric technique to resolve the ambiguities between phase and amplitude. Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) measures the phase gradient in an optically transparent specimen by combining two spatially separated images interferometrically. Confocal reflectance measures index of refraction changes in a plane or reflection from small scatterers. Confocal fluorescence and 2-photon laser scanning microscopy, measure fluorescent signatures of a specimen. The last three of these are inherently capable of producing three-dimensional images directly, through localized probing.

Date Published: 24 March 2005
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 5701, Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XII, (24 March 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.591341

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5701:
Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XII
Jose-Angel Conchello; Carol J. Cogswell; Tony Wilson, Editor(s)