Figure 1

(a) The schematics of the spatial light interference microscope (SLIM). SLIM combines conventional phase contrast microscopy (left) and a SLIM module (right). The SLIM module consists of a 4f lens system, and spatial light modulator (SLM). The SLM is for phase modulation which is required for phase extraction. The yellow beam represents the unscattered light and the red beam presents the scattered light. (b) The four successive intensity images are taken when the phase of the unscattered beam is shifted by the SLM. The phase is shifted in increments of π/2 rad. (c) The SLIM image obtained by combining the four intensity images. (d) Wide-field SLIM image obtained by using an automatic wide-field acquisition and mosaic algorithm. There is 8% overlap between adjacent images.