Quantitative phase microscopy by a glass microsphere and plate

This paper introduces a simple arrangement for quantitative phase microscopy (QPM). We implement a compact and low-cost self-referencing setup for digital holographic microscopy (DHM). A glass plate (GP) is used to implement lateral shearing interferometry, and a glass microsphere (MS) takes on the responsibility of an objective lens. The usefulness and capability of the proposed system are validated by using it to resolve a standard grating structure, followed by validation with the results obtained from atomic force microscopy (AFM). We applied the setup to perform 3D visualizations of human red blood cells, demonstrating the technique's potential for high-contrast label-free QPM of biological samples and its utility in cell morphology, identification, and classification.