Scanning holographic microscopy with spatially incoherent sources: reconciling the holographic advantage with the sectioning advantage

A new mode of operation of scanning holographic microscopy that combines the two seemingly incompatible holographic advantage and axial sectioning advantage is proposed and demonstrated. Temporally modulated Fabry-Perot fringes are scanned in a two-dimensional raster over the specimen. With a spatially coherent (point) source, the fringes are spatially nonlocalized and encode the entire three-dimensional volume of the specimen in the form of a single-sideband in-line Fresnel hologram. With an extended spatially incoherent source the fringes are axially localized and select the modulated information from a specific axial plane only. The holographic advantage and the sectioning advantage can thus be achieved with the same scanning holographic setup using different source sizes.