Imaging cell division in E-coli using white light diffraction phase microscopy

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) techniques is an emerging field aimed at studying weakly scattering and absorbing specimens. QPI techniques provide 3-d images with high contrast, compared to qualitative imaging techniques like bright field imaging, phase contrast imaging, differential interference contrast imaging. White light diffraction phase microscopy (wDPM) is one of the QPI techniques which provide both amplitude and phase images simultaneously with single shot. It also uses common path interferometric geometry which provide better temporal sensitivity compared to other interferometric techniques. Also wDPM uses the white light as the illumination source which makes this imaging technique unique in speckle free imaging. The rate of recording the cellular dynamics is only limited by the camera speed. In this work we developed the wDPM techniques and characterized the system in terms of resolution and sensitivity. We also used the Fast phase reconstruction algorithm to reconstruct the 3d phase form the recorded interference pattern. We recorded the interference pattern of E.coli and reconstructed the 3-d phase images with high sensitivity. We also demonstrated the cell division in E.coli using this technique.