Imaging with a single pixel confers many advantages for biological imaging, particularly in the case of tissues, where optical scattering obscured image signals for conventional imaging techniques. While laser scanning confocal and multiphoton imaging are powerful techniques that are routinely deployed for biological imaging, the signals must be acquired by scanning the focal spot sequentially through the entire region of interest. In recent years, we have introduced a new single pixel imaging method that speeds up imaging in tissues by spreading the conventional excitation spot to a spatial-temporally modulated line focus. In our method, the illumination beam is modulated with a spatial frequency that sweeps linearly in time, and is thus called spatial frequency projection imaging (SPIFI). SPIFI used with a nonlinear optical response also results in super-resolution imaging.
The challenge with SPIFI is that it is a one-dimensional imaging method, and consequentially, the spatial resolution enhancements afforded by nonlinear SPIFI imaging similarly only appear along the modulated spatial coordinate. Here, we introduce a new form of tomographic imaging that homogenized SPIFI imaging resolution along both coordinates of the object that is imaged. The method is a conjugate domain form of computed tomography (CT), that forms spatial frequency projections, parameterized by rotation angle, rather than spatial projections that are used in conventional CT. We develop theory and experimentally demonstrate Fourier coherent tomographic imaging of objects both with bright field (intensity transmission) and fluorescent emission modes. We demonstrate isotropic improvement in spatial resolution with this technique.
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