Systems and methods for performing quantitative phase-contrast confocal microscopy

1. A system for performing quantitative phase-contrast confocal microscopy, the system comprising:

a light source that emits light;

a first beam splitter that splits the emitted light into an illumination path and a hologram path;

means provided along the illumination path for delivering a first part of the emitted light to an object as a collimated line;

a light sensor that captures light reflected off of the object to obtain an intensity image for the collimated line; and

means provided along the hologram path for delivering a second part of the emitted light to the light sensor at an off-axis angle to obtain an off-axis hologram for the collimated line, wherein the means for delivering a second part of the emitted light comprises a second beam splitter that splits the light into a first path and a second path, the first path including a mirror that reflects the emitted light back to the second beam splitter, a beam expander that receives and collimates the reflected light, and an angled beam splitter that reflects the collimated light at an off-axis angle.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the light source is a laser.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for delivering a first part of the light comprises a cylindrical lens that focuses the emitted light onto a line.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the means for delivering a first part of the light further comprises a beam expander that expands and collimates the emitted light prior to the light reaching the cylindrical lens.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the means for delivering a first part of the light further comprises an objective lens that focuses the collimated line on the object.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the light sensor is a charge-coupled device.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a focusing lens that focuses light reflected by the object onto the light sensor.

8. A system for performing quantitative phase-contrast confocal microscopy, the system comprising:

a laser that emits light;

a first beam splitter that splits the emitted light into two portions;

an illumination path that receives a first portion of the emitted light, the illumination path including a beam expander that receives and collimates the emitted light, a cylindrical lens that receives the collimated light and focuses it onto a line, and an objective lens that focuses the collimated line onto an object;

a hologram path that receives a second portion of the emitted light, the hologram path including a second beam splitter that splits the light into a first path and a second path, the first path including a mirror that reflects the emitted light back to the second beam splitter, and the second path including a beam expander that receives and collimates the reflected light and an angled beam splitter that reflects the collimated light at an off-axis angle; and

a light sensor that captures light reflected off of the object to obtain an intensity image for the collimated line and captures off-axis light from the angled beam splitter to obtain an off-axis hologram for the collimated line.

9. A method for performing quantitative phase-contrast confocal microscopy on an object, the method comprising:

(a) splitting light from a light source along two different paths including an illumination path and a hologram path;

(b) focusing the light along the illumination path onto a portion of the object as a collimated line;

(c) delivering the light along the hologram path to the light sensor at an angle relative to light reflected from the object so as to obtain an off-axis line hologram;

(d) reconstructing a line of intensity information and a line of phase information from the off-axis line hologram by applying a numerical slit to the off-axis line hologram;

(e) refocusing the light along the illumination path as a collimated line onto a different portion of the object and repeating steps (c) and (d) to obtain a further line of intensity information and a further line of phase information;

(f) repeating step (e) until a plurality of lines of intensity information and a plurality of lines of phase information have been obtained;

(g) reconstructing a full-field intensity image for the object by stitching the plurality of lines of intensity information together; and

(h) reconstructing a full-field phase image for the object by stitching the plurality of lines of phase information together.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein focusing and refocusing the light comprises passing the light through a cylindrical lens.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein delivering the light along the hologram path comprises delivering the light after it has been reflected by a mirror.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein delivering the light along the hologram path comprises reflecting the light onto the light sensor with an angled beam splitter.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the width of the numerical slit is no greater than 2 Airy units.