A small animal Raman instrument for rapid, wide-area, spectroscopic imaging.

Raman spectroscopy, amplified by surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles, is a molecular imaging modality with ultra-high sensitivity and the unique ability to multiplex readouts from different molecular targets using a single wavelength of excitation. This approach holds exciting prospects for a range of applications in medicine, including identification and characterization of malignancy during endoscopy and intraoperative image guidance of surgical resection. The development of Raman molecular imaging with SERS nanoparticles is presently limited by long acquisition times, poor spatial resolution, small field of view, and difficulty in animal handling with existing Raman spectroscopy instruments. Our goal is to overcome these limitations by designing a bespoke instrument for Raman molecular imaging in small animals. Here, we present a unique and dedicated small-animal Raman imaging instrument that enables rapid, high-spatial resolution, spectroscopic imaging over a wide field of view (> 6 cm(2)), with simplified animal handling. Imaging of SERS nanoparticles in small animals demonstrated that this small animal Raman imaging system can detect multiplexed SERS signals in both superficial and deep tissue locations at least an order of magnitude faster than existing systems without compromising sensitivity.

Multiframe image estimation for coded aperture snapshot spectral imagers.

A coded aperture snapshot spectral imager (CASSI) estimates the three-dimensional spatiospectral data cube from a snapshot two-dimensional coded projection, assuming that the scene is spatially and spectrally sparse. For less spectrally sparse scenes, we show that the use of multiple nondegenerate snapshots can make data cube recovery less ill-posed, yielding improved spatial and spectral reconstruction fidelity. Additionally, data acquisition can be easily scaled to meet the time/resolution requirements of the scene with little modification or extension of the original CASSI hardware. A multiframe reconstruction of a 640 × 480 × 53 voxel datacube with 450-650 nm white-light illumination of a scene reveals substantial improvement in the reconstruction fidelity, with limited increase in acquisition and reconstruction time.

Imaging through turbulence using compressive coherence sensing.

Previous studies have shown that the isoplanatic distortion due to turbulence and the image of a remote object may be jointly estimated from the 4D mutual intensity across an aperture. This Letter shows that decompressive inference on a 2D slice of the 4D mutual intensity, as measured by a rotational shear interferometer, is sufficient for estimation of sparse objects imaged through turbulence. The 2D slice is processed using an iterative algorithm that alternates between estimating the sparse objects and estimating the turbulence-induced phase screen. This approach may enable new systems that infer object properties through turbulence without exhaustive sampling of coherence functions.

Video rate spectral imaging using a coded aperture snapshot spectral imager.

We have previously reported on coded aperture snapshot spectral imagers (CASSI) that can capture a full frame spectral image in a snapshot. Here we describe the use of CASSI for spectral imaging of a dynamic scene at video rate. We describe significant advances in the design of the optical system, system calibration procedures and reconstruction method. The new optical system uses a double Amici prism to achieve an in-line, direct view configuration, resulting in a substantial improvement in image quality. We describe NeAREst, an algorithm for estimating the instantaneous three-dimensional spatio-spectral data cube from CASSI's two-dimensional array of encoded and compressed measurements. We utilize CASSI's snapshot ability to demonstrate a spectral image video of multi-colored candles with live flames captured at 30 frames per second.

Single disperser design for coded aperture snapshot spectral imaging.

We present a single disperser spectral imager that exploits recent theoretical work in the area of compressed sensing to achieve snapshot spectral imaging. An experimental prototype is used to capture the spatiospectral information of a scene that consists of two balls illuminated by different light sources. An iterative algorithm is used to reconstruct the data cube. The average spectral resolution is 3.6 nm per spectral channel. The accuracy of the instrument is demonstrated by comparison of the spectra acquired with the proposed system with the spectra acquired by a nonimaging reference spectrometer.

Performance comparison of aperture codes for multimodal, multiplex spectroscopy.

We experimentally evaluate diverse static independent column codes in a coded aperture spectrometer. The performance of each code is evaluated based on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), defined as the peak value in the spectrum to the standard deviation of the background noise, as a function of subpixel vertical misalignments. Among the code families tested, an S-matrix-based code produces spectral reconstructions with the highest SNR. The SNR is least sensitive to vertical subpixel misalignments on the detector with a Hadamard-matrix-based code. Finally, the increased sensitivity of a spectrometer using a coded aperture instead of a slit is demonstrated.