Spatial light modulation for improved microscope stereo vision and 3D tracking

Abstract

We present a new type of stereo microscopy which can be used for tracking in 3D over an extended depth. The use of Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) in the Fourier plane of a microscope sample is a common technique in Holographic Optical Tweezers (HOT). This set up is readily transferable from a tweezer system to an imaging system, where the tweezing laser is replaced with a camera. Just as a HOT system can diffract many traps of different types, in the imaging system many different imaging types can be diffracted with the SLM. The type of imaging we have developed is stereo imaging combined with lens correction. This approach has similarities with human vision where each eye has a lens, and it also extends the depth over which we can accurately track particles.