Computational adaptive optics for interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy and other interferometric imaging

1. A method for correcting for aberrations in an image or 3D reconstruction of a sampled region obtained by broadband interferometry, the method comprising:

a. illuminating the sampled region with a broadband source of light characterized by a beam propagation axis;

b. acquiring an interference signal between light scattered from the sampled region and a reference beam derived from the broadband source, the interference signal acquired at a plurality of pixels in a volume spanned by wavenumber and by axes transverse to the beam propagation axis; and

c. applying an optimization procedure to the image with respect to a specified criterion so as to obtain an aberration-corrected image of at least one plane of the sampled region.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimization procedure comprises minimizing a difference between a detected aberrated point spread function and a specified system point spread function.

3. A method according to claim 2 , further comprising applying a filter function to correct the image based on the detected aberrated point spread function.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimization procedure includes extremizing a specified parameter subject to a specified model.

5. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the specified parameter is a Rényi entropy.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimization procedure includes resampling based on at least one of sharpness of point-like scatterers and specified imaging metrics applied to aberration-corrected image data.

7. A method according to claim 3 , further comprising:

e. irradiating the sampled region in conjunction with irradiating a sparsely distributed plurality of point scatterers, by means of the broadband source of light;

f. superposing scattered radiation from the plurality of point scatterers with a reference beam derived from the broadband source of light to provide a calibrating interference signal;

g. acquiring the calibrating interference signal as a function of wavelength; and

h. deriving the filter function on a basis of the detected aberrated point spread function relative to a desired system point spread function determined from the distributed plurality of point scatterers.

8. A method according to claim 3 , further comprising solving an inverse scattering problem based upon the interference signal subject to the filter function to infer a three-dimensional structure of the sampled region.

9. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the step of applying the filter function derives a plurality of aberration-corrected images in each of a plurality of en face planes.

10. A method according to claim 7 , wherein the sparsely distributed plurality of point scatterers are included in the sampled region.

11. A method according to claim 7 , further comprising injecting the sparsely distributed point scatterers into the sample region.

12. A method according to claim 7 , wherein the sparsely distributed plurality of point scatterers are included in a phantom distinct from the sampled region.

13. A method according to claim 12 , wherein the phantom is irradiated in temporal succession to the sample under substantially identical optical conditions as the sampled region.

14. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of acquiring includes superposition of the light scattered from the sampled region with the reference beam onto a plurality of detectors.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium for use on a computer system for correcting aberrations in an image or 3D reconstruction of a sampled region obtained by broadband interferometry, the non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program code thereon, the computer readable program code comprising:

a. a computer code module for receiving an interference signal between light scattered from the sampled region as illuminated by a broadband source and a reference beam derived from the broadband source, the interference signal acquired at a plurality of pixels in a volume spanned by wavenumber and by axes transverse to a beam propagation axis of the broadband source; and

b. a computer code module for applying an optimization procedure to the image with respect to a specified criterion so as to obtain an aberration-corrected image of at least one plane of the sampled region.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising:

c. a computer code module for deriving a filter function accounting for a detected aberrated point spread function relative to a desired system point spread function; and

d. a computer code module for applying the filter function to obtain the aberration-corrected image of at least one plane of the sampled region.

17. A method for reading data from an optical information storage medium, the method comprising:

a. irradiating a region of the optical information storage medium with a beam of light characterized by a broadband spectrum;

b. superposing radiation returned from a plurality of features disposed within the optical information storage medium with a reference beam derived from the beam of light to provide an interference signal;

c. acquiring the interference signal as a function of wavelength;

d. applying an optimization procedure to an image with respect to a specified criterion so as to obtain an aberration-corrected image of at least one plane of the region of the optical information storage medium; and

e. outputting a data value based on an optical characteristic of one feature within the region of the optical storage medium.

18. A method for reading data according to claim 17 , further comprising:

f. applying to the interference signal a filter function accounting for an aberrated point spread function relative to a desired system point spread function to obtain the aberration-corrected image of a specified plane of the region; and

g. outputting a data value based on an optical characteristic of a feature within the specified plane of the region.