Continuous optical zoom microscope with extended depth of field and 3D reconstruction

Abstract Microscope such as fluorescence microscope, confocal microscope and two-photon microscope plays an important role in life science, laser processing and other fields. However, most microscopes only have discrete zoom rates. In this paper, a continuous optical zoom microscope with extended depth of field and 3D reconstruction is demonstrated for the first time. It consists of a zoom objective lens, a microscope holder, an adjustable three-dimensional object stage, an Abbe condenser and an LED light source. The zoom objective lens is composed of several liquid lenses and solid lenses. By adjusting the applied voltage to the liquid lens, the proposed microscope can achieve a large continuous magnification from 10? to 60?. Moreover, an improved shape from focus (SFF) algorithm and image fusion algorithm are designed for 3D reproduction. Based on the liquid lenses, the axial focusing position can be adjusted to obtain images with different depths, and then the extended depth of field and 3D reconstruction can be realized. Our experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed microscope. The proposed microscope is expected to be applied in the fields of pathological diagnosis, biological detection, etc.