Patent 9546952 was granted and assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology on January, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention relates to systems and methods for quantitative three-dimensional mapping of refractive index in living or non-living cells, tissues, or organisms using a phase-shifting laser interferometric microscope with variable illumination angle. A preferred embodiment provides tomographic imaging of cells and multicellular organisms, and time-dependent changes in cell structure and the quantitative characterization of specimen-induced aberrations in high-resolution microscopy with multiple applications in tissue light scattering.