Refractive Index Imaging of Cellular Structures

Label free microscopic approaches have become a necessity to explore, image, and understand, complex biological systems with minimal sample modifications [1]. These innovative microscopes exploit the native photophysical processes present when light interacts with matter, presenting a plethora of options not only for introducing image contrast, but in providing information unobtainable with traditional approaches [2]. When paired with the recent and significant advances in computational approaches, label free imaging is a profoundly powerful tool to image biological systems in innovative ways. In particular, the way in which light is slowed when passing through a sample, known as it's phase shift, is a label-free paradigm particularly useful for biological samples. This is because the refractive index is essentially a relation of the different chemical or physical properties of the sample, and if obtained quantitatively …