We developed and tested a high-pressure optical chamber system for cultivation and microscopic observation of deep-sea organisms. The system is composed of an optical chamber, a highpressure pump, a pressure sensor and a microscope. The chamber has an observation cavity, 2 cultivation cavities and 2 sapphire windows. The pump is employed for perfusion of culture medium and for increasing the pr...

Combining finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods and modeling of optical microscopy modalities, we previously developed an open-source software package called Angora, which is essentially a “microscope in a computer.” However, the samples being simulated were limited to nondispersive media. Since media dispersions are common in biological samples (such as cells with staining and metallic ...

Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are becoming increasingly important in optical microscopy. These reflective or transmissive devices, based on microdisplays using liquid crystal or micromirror array technology, are used to achieve a variety of useful effects and imaging modes. When placed in an image plane, SLMs can be used to create arbitrary, computer controlled masks. These masks can then be ...

The relatively low spatial resolution of the optical microscope presents significant limitations for the observation of biological ultrastructure. Subcellular structures and molecular complexes essential for biological function exist on length scales from nanometers to micrometers. When observed with light, however, structural features smaller than ∼0.2 µm are blurred and are difficult or impos...

Introduction In the current world of nanotechnology, fast and reliable measurement of nanoscale features is extremely useful. It is further advantageous if the analytical tools used are cost-effective and have high throughput, such as optics-based tools. In conventional optical microscopy, it is usually deemed necessary to acquire images at the “best-focus” position for meaningful analysis. How...

In optical microscopy, the microscopic features of interest typically have to be derived from regions that are spatially distributed over the sample. While the features to be analyzed may be minute, the regions from where they must be obtained from may be located quite far apart from one another. If the features are not distinct enough to allow easy visual discrimination, it would be tedious an...

Light field microscopy has been proposed as a new high-speed volumetric computational imaging method that enables reconstruction of 3-D volumes from captured projections of the 4-D light field. Recently, a detailed physical optics model of the light field microscope has been derived, which led to the development of a deconvolution algorithm that reconstructs 3-D volumes with high spatial resolu...

Polarization-interferometric nonlinear confocal microscopy is proposed for measuring a nano-sized particle with optical anisotropy. The anisotropy in the particle was spectroscopically imaged through a three-dimensional distribution of third-order nonlinear dielectric polarization photoinduced. Keywords—nanoparticle, optical storage, microscope

Optical aberrations deteriorate the performance of microscopes. Adaptive optics can be used to improve imaging performance via wavefront shaping. Here, we demonstrate a pupil-segmentation based adaptive optical approach with full-pupil illumination. When implemented in a two-photon fluorescence microscope, it recovers diffraction-limited performance and improves imaging signal and resolution.

We present a multi-color STED fluorescence microscope providing far-field optical resolution down to 20 nm for biomedical research. The optical design comprises fiber lasers, beam scanners, and a set of active and passive polarizing elements that cooperatively yield an optically robust system for routinely imaging samples at subdiffraction length scales.