Spatial optical analog differentiation allows ultrahigh-speed and low-power-consumption of image processing, as well as label-free imaging of transparent biological objects. Optical analog differentiation with broadband and incoherent sources is appealing for its multi-channels and multi-task information processing, as well as the high-quality differentiation imaging. Currently, broadband and incoherent optical differentiation is still challenging. Here, a compact and broadband achromatic optical spatial differentiator is demonstrated based on the intrinsic spin–orbit coupling in a natural thin crystal. By inserting a uniaxial crystal just before the camera of a conventional microscope, the spin to orbit conversion will embed an optical vortex to the image field and make a second-order topological spatial differentiation to the field, thus an isotropic differential image will be captured by the camera. The wavelength-independent property of the intrinsic spin–orbit coupling effect allows us to achieve broadband analog computing and achromatic spatial differentiation imaging. With this differentiation imaging method, both amplitude and pure phase objects are detected with high contrast. Transparent living cells and biological tissues are imaged with their edge contours and intracellular details protruded in the edge detection mode and edge enhancement mode, respectively. These findings pave the way for optical analog computing with broadband incoherent light sources and concurrently drive the advancement of high-performance and cost-effective phase contrast imaging.

中文翻译：

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自旋轨道光学宽带消色差空间微分成像


空间光学模拟微分可以实现超高速和低功耗的图像处理，以及透明生物物体的无标记成像。宽带和非相干源的光学模拟微分因其多通道、多任务信息处理以及高质量的微分成像而具有吸引力。目前，宽带和非相干光学区分仍然具有挑战性。这里，基于天然薄晶体中固有的自旋轨道耦合，演示了一种紧凑的宽带消色差光学空间微分器。通过在传统显微镜的相机前插入单轴晶体，自旋到轨道的转换将在像场中嵌入光学涡旋并对场进行二阶拓扑空间微分，从而捕获各向同性差分图像相机。固有自旋轨道耦合效应的波长无关特性使我们能够实现宽带模拟计算和消色差空间微分成像。通过这种微分成像方法，可以以高对比度检测幅度物体和纯相位物体。透明活细胞和生物组织分别在边缘检测模式和边缘增强模式下成像，其边缘轮廓和细胞内细节突出。这些发现为宽带非相干光源的光学模拟计算铺平了道路，同时推动了高性能和经济有效的相衬成像的进步。