OPTICAL TOMOGRAPHY BY MEANS OF A NUMERICA L LOW-COHERENCE HOLOGRAPHICTECHNIQUE

Digital holograms are recorded by a CCD camera and are numerically rec onstructed, in intensity and phase, by means of an algorithm which cal culates their discrete Fresnel transform. By using a low-coherence sou rce, the tomography of a 3D scene can be performed without lateral sca nning with a depth resolution equal to the coherence length (25 mu m) and a lateral resolution equal to the diffraction limit of the microsc ope objective used (2.2 mu m).