Quantitative phase-amplitude microscopy I: Optical microscopy

Abstract

In this paper, the application of a new optical microscopy method (quantitative phase-amplitude microscopy) to biological imaging is explored, and the issue of resolution and image quality is examined. The paper begins by presenting a theoretical analysis of the method using the optical transfer function formalism of Streibl (1985). The effect of coherence on the formation of the phase image is explored, and it is shown that the resolution of the method is not compromised over that of a conventional bright-field image. It is shown that the signal-to-noise ratio of the phase recovery, however, does depend on the degree of coherence in the illumination. Streibl (1985) notes that partially cohe..