White-light spiral phase contrast imaging.

Spiral vortex phases have been widely used for phase contrast imaging, where, however, monochromatic coherent light sources were employed. Here, a white-light spiral phase contrast (SPC) microscopy is established by taking advantage of the wavelength-independent property of the vortex topologic charge of the spiral phase created by a q-plate. Sharper edges with higher contrast can be obtained by darkening the central region of the q-plate. The good performances of the white-light SPC microscopy are verified by the edge extractions of full color and pure phase objects, as well as the traces of moving microparticles and cell divisions. These findings deepen the understanding of SPC imaging and provide a simple and competitive SPC microscopy.