Isotropic resolution optical diffraction tomography using tomographic mold for optical trapping

Abstract

Achieving the isotropic 3D resolution has been one of the most challenging in optical microscopy. When objective lenses with finite numerical aperture, their axial resolution becomes inferior to the lateral resolution. Although various sample rotation methods have been demonstrated to improve the axial resolution, the requirement of invasive sample manipulations has limited their applications for general complex-shaped specimens. Here, we propose a general method for the in-situ isotropic microtomography of freestanding specimens. Exploiting complex wavefront shaping and optical tweezers, we demonstrate that optimally structured 3D light traps can stably rotate a specimen by considering their 3D refractive index distribution, and reconstruct tomograms with isotropic resolution.