Non-invasive dynamic or wide-field imaging through opaque layers and around corners

Abstract: In turbid media, scattering of light scrambles information of the incident beam and represents an obstacle to optical imaging. Noninvasive imaging through opaque layers is challenging for dynamic and wide-field objects due to unreliable image reconstruction processes. We here propose a new perspective to solve these problems: rather than using the full point-spread-function (PSF), the wave distortions in scattering layers can be characterized with only the phase of the optical-transfer-function (OTF, the Fourier transform of PSF), with which diffraction-limit images can be analytically solved. We then develop a method that exploits the redundant information dynamic objects, and can reliably and rapidly recover OTFs' phases within several iterations. It enables not only noninvasive video imaging at 25 ~ 200 Hz of a moving object hidden inside turbid media, but also imaging under weak illumination that is inaccessible with previous methods. Furthermore, by scanning a localized illumination on the object plane, we propose a wide-field imaging approach, with which we demonstrate an application where a photoluminescent sample hidden behind four-layers of opaque polythene films is imaged with a modified multi-photon excitation microscopy setup.