Fig. 2: Optical biology experiment of ultra-broadband ptychography at 60% bandwidth.

a A proof-of-concept imaging system for ultra-broadband ptychography is depicted and described. The system integrates a super-continuous light source. After collimation and spatial filtering, broadband light passes through a pinhole with a phase-type USAF resolution target to form a light probe that illuminates the ant sample. The displayed images of the sample and pinhole with phase mask were obtained by an optical microscope. Additionally, a broadband diffraction pattern displayed on a logarithmic scale is presented. The spectral distribution of the continuum source employed for ultra-broadband illumination is also presented. b The reconstructed structured probe result, including the amplitude and phase of the ant specimen reconstructed using traditional ptychography, is displayed. c The reconstructed structured probe and sample using our ultra-broadband ptychography method are showcased. The backward propagation to the pinhole yields a clear USAF image, as indicated within the blue circle. The scale bar in (c) corresponds to 500 μm.