Enhanced Fresnel zone plate coded microscopy of large-size objects.

A scheme for microscopy of relatively large-size objects by using Fresnel zone plate (FZP) coded imaging (FZ-PCI) is digitally demonstrated. The limit on the source size in zone-plate-based microscopy comes from interference of out-of-focus multidiffraction orders of the FZP with the focused-order image. From the study of the angular spectrum of the coded image, it is shown that noise contribution from higher orders to a lower-order image can be digitally suppressed by selective propagation of spatial frequencies. Similarly, noise from aliasing and noise from lower orders to a higher-order image can be reduced by spatially limiting the coded image. To my knowledge for the first time, the results of digitally performed FZPCI-based microscopy of an object that is three times larger than the first zone of the FZP with a resolution better than 2 microm are presented and discussed.