Transmission digital holographic microscopy based on a beam-splitter cube interferometer.

A new optical configuration for digital holographic microscopy is presented. Digital off-axis holograms are recorded by use of a single cube beam splitter in a nonconventional configuration to both split and combine a diverging spherical wavefront as it emerges from a single point source. Both the amplitude and the phase can then be reconstructed, yielding intensity and phase images with improved resolution. The novelty of the proposed configuration is its simplicity, minimal number of optical elements, insensitivity to vibration, and its inherent capability to compensate for the phase curvature that results from the illuminating wavefront in the case of microscopic samples.