Color-coded LED microscopy for multi-contrast and quantitative phase-gradient imaging.

We present a multi-contrast microscope based on color-coded illumination and computation. A programmable three-color light-emitting diode (LED) array illuminates a specimen, in which each color corresponds to a different illumination angle. A single color image sensor records light transmitted through the specimen, and images at each color channel are then separated and utilized to obtain bright-field, dark-field, and differential phase contrast (DPC) images simultaneously. Quantitative phase imaging is also achieved based on DPC images acquired with two different LED illumination patterns. The multi-contrast and quantitative phase imaging capabilities of our method are demonstrated by presenting images of various transparent biological samples.