Simulation and experimental confirmation of quantitative differential phase contrast microscopy with different illumination sources

Quantitative differential phase contrast microscopy has recently gained significant attention as a cost-effective and simple method for the phase imaging of unlabeled specimens. Although some studies in the literature present comparisons of different illumination conditions, no detailed simulation and validation study presents the differences between color-coded and white source illuminations with the same hardware and specimens. The color-coded illumination was never simulated using synthetic data in previous studies. We are the first to reveal both simulation results and validation of the experiments involving three different illumination sources to utilize a light-emitting diode array as a light source. We have encompassed different illumination configurations and investigated their impact on phase images through both simulations and experiments. The reconstructed phase images are compared using white source, dual-color, and single-shot illuminations. The importance of illumination using numerical simulations under various strengths of noises and experiments is demonstrated. In brief, we fill a crucial void in the field by conducting a thorough and systematic analysis of different LED illumination patterns, thereby advancing the understanding of quantitative phase imaging.