Fig. 5.

(a) and (b) illustrate the performance differences between conventional LUCAS vs. Holographic-LUCAS. In each image a high-resolution CMOS sensor array (2.2 µm pixel size) was used. (c) and (d) show the cross sectional intensity profiles (taken from (a) and (b)) of various micro-objects imaged using conventional LUCAS and Holographic-LUCAS, respectively. Due to increased spatial coherence, the holographic diffraction pattern of each micro-object type exhibits much richer texture information with unique oscillating features containing phase information of the cell/micro-particle. This phase information is normally lost during incoherent illumination as discussed in the Appendix. (f,h,j) show zoomed images of the holographic diffraction signatures of 10 µm beads, yeast cells (S. Pombe) and RBCs, respectively. For comparison purposes, a microscope image of the same field of view that is acquired with a 10 × objective-lens is also shown in (e,g,i).