Demonstration of three-dimensional optical imaging using a confocal microscope based on a liquid-crystal electronic lens

Three-dimensional (3-D) imaging is demonstrated using an electronically controlled liquid crystal (LC) optical lens to accomplish a no-moving-parts depth-section scanning in a modified commercial 3-D confocal microscope. Specifically, 3-D views of a standard CDC blood vessel (enclosed in a glass slide) have been obtained using the modified confocal microscope operating at the red 633-nm laser wavelength. The image sizes over a 25-µm axial scan depth were 50×50 µm and 80×80 µm, using 60× and 20× micro-objectives, respectively. The transverse motion step was 0.1 µm for the 60× data and 0.2 µm for the 20× data. As a first-step comparison, image processing of the standard and LC electronic-lens microscope images indicates correlation values between 0.81 and 0.91. The proposed microscopy system within aberration limits has the potential to eliminate the mechanical forces due to sample or objective motion that can distort the original sample structure and lead to imaging errors.