High resolution digital holographic microscopy for the study of aggregated natural cellulose nanowhisker fibers

• High resolution off-axis digital holography.
• Numerical reconstruction and numerical focusing.
• Investigation of aggregated natural cellulose nanowhisker fibers.
• Refractive index of aggregated natural cellulose nanowhisker fiber.

In this paper, digital holographic (DH) microscopy demonstrates its ability to perform a full characterization of nanofibers. The high resolution and magnification of the presented method to study the nanofibers are tested using standard MIL-STD-150A 1951 USAF resolution test target. In this investigation, aggregated natural cellulose nanowhisker fibers are positioned in the front of the microscopic objective using a 3D translation stage in the object arm of DH setup. The recorded off-axis holograms are refocused using the angular spectrum method. The reconstructed complex field is used to calculate optical phase and intensity distributions of the object at different reconstruction depths. A simple algorithm is used to define the focused image with suitable accuracy. The dimensions and orientation of the fibers can be evaluated from the optical field at different depths. Then, the shape and textures along the aggregated natural cellulose nanowhisker fiber can be presented in a 3D space.