Resolution enhancement phase-contrast imaging by microsphere digital holography

•The transverse resolution in all directions can be enhanced by a single exposure.•The approach can acquire not only the super-resolution amplitude image but also the phase image.•The presented method is potential to break through the Abbe׳s diffraction limit λ/2.

Microsphere has shown the superiority of super-resolution imaging in the traditional 2D intensity microscope. Here a microsphere digital holography approach is presented to realize the resolution enhancement phase-contrast imaging. The system is designed by combining the microsphere with the image-plane digital holography. A microsphere very close to the object can increase the resolution by transforming the object wave from the higher frequency to the lower one. The resolution enhancement amplitude and phase images can be retrieved from a single hologram. The experiments are carried on the 1D and 2D gratings, and the results demonstrate that the observed resolution has been improved, meanwhile, the phase-contrast image is obtained. The proposed method can improve the transverse resolution in all directions based on a single exposure. Furthermore, this system has extended the application of the microsphere from the conventional 2D microscopic imaging to 3D phase-contrast microscopic imaging.