Hardware implement of high resolution light field microscopy

Microscope is the primary scientific instrument in many laboratories. Nowadays, with the development of science and technology, requirements on the performance of microscopic imaging are growing rapidly. Light field microscopy (LFM) is an effective approach of obtaining three-dimensional (3D) information. However, the LFM compromises the spatial resolution of image. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new method by combining LFM with Fourier ptychographic (FP) algorithm, which iteratively stitches together a number of variably illuminated, low-resolution intensity images in Fourier space to produce a wide-field, high-resolution complex sample image. The hardware implement of the system is mainly introduced, which contains the image system and the illumination system. This system uses epi-illumination for non-transparent sample image. To verify the capability of this system, experiments have been done. Firstly, a 150 μm size micro-lens array was used to image without FP algorithm. Secondly, FP algorithm was added to the experiments. Preliminary results showed the potential of the method.