{"doi":"10.1364/optica.404678","title":"High-contrast multifocus microscopy with a single camera and z-splitter prism","abstract":"Optical microscopy has been an indispensable tool for studying complex biological systems, but is often hampered by problems of speed and complexity when performing 3D volumetric imaging. Here, we present a multifocus imaging strategy based on the use of a simple z-splitter prism that can be assembled from off-the-shelf components. Our technique enables a widefield image stack to be distributed onto a single camera and recorded simultaneously. We exploit the volumetric nature of our image acquisition by further introducing a novel extended-volume 3D deconvolution strategy to suppress far-out-of-focus fluorescence background to significantly improve the contrast of our recorded images, conferring to our system a capacity for quasi-optical sectioning. By swapping in different z-splitter configurations, we can prioritize high speed or large 3D field-of-view imaging depending on the application of interest. Moreover, our system can be readily applied to a variety of imaging modalities in addition to fluorescence, such as phase-contrast and darkfield imaging. Because of its simplicity, versatility, and performance, we believe our system will be a useful tool for general biological or biomedical imaging applications.","journal":"Optica","year":2020,"id":60281,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":63,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9558,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":261768,"name":"Howard J. Gritton","orcid":"0000-0003-3194-3258","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264903,"name":"Hua-An Tseng","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":319275,"name":"Dana Zemel","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":261782,"name":"Xue Han","orcid":"0000-0003-3896-4609","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":317889,"name":"Jérôme Mertz","orcid":"0000-0002-6343-9155","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":317888,"name":"Sheng Xiao","orcid":"0000-0001-8959-2388","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":55,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:08:47.852401Z","pmid":"34532564","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}