A single-shot dual-wavelength digital holographic microscopy with an
adjustable off-axis configuration is presented, which helps realize
real-time quantitative phase imaging for living cells. With this
configuration, two sets of interference fringes corresponding to their
wavelengths can be flexibly recorded onto one hologram in one shot.
The universal expression on the dual-wavelength hologram recorded
under any wave vector orientation angles of reference beams is given.
To avoid as much as possible the effect of zero-order spectrum, we can
flexibly select their carry frequencies for the two wavelengths using
this adjustable off-axis configuration, according to the distribution
feature of object’s spatial-frequency spectrum. This merit is verified
by a quantitative phase imaging experiment for the microchannel of a
microfluidic chip. The reconstructed phase maps of living onion
epidermal cells exhibit cellular internal life activities, for the
first time to the best of our knowledge, vividly displaying the
progress of the nucleus, cell wall, cytoskeleton, and the substance
transport in microtubules inside living cells. These imaging results
demonstrate the availability and reliability of the presented method
for real-time quantitative phase imaging.