Measuring the phase and intensity of the light in microscopy for biological sample characterization at the nanoscale

Abstract

Conventional optical imaging technique are only sensitive to the light intensity. However, many other optical parameters can be probed to enhance the quantity of information retrieved from a biological sample. I will discuss in this presentation how and why measuring the so-called phase of the light. Applications both in the scope of label-free microscopy and for 3D fluorescence super-resolution will be discussed. In particular, I will show that this quantitative imaging modality allows to identify without labeling many organelles at high frame-rate and for any duration1 in living cells. Then I will move to the application of imaging both the intensity and the phase of fluorescent single emitter and demonstrate that it leads to single molecule 3D localization and 3D super-resolution even at depth in biological tissues2