In the biological sciences, there is much emphasis on elucidating the functions of various biological components and processes. To do so, advances in general microscopy have yielded various imaging modalities to probe such processes under specific visualization and contrast requirements. Examples of modalities that are popularly integrated into conventional biological studies include fluorescent, dark-field, phase-contrast, and polarization-sensitive microscopies, with each modality offering unique insights into the biological function of the sample. Often times, however, a comprehensive understanding of biological phenomena requires the integration of the unique and separate visualizations of various modalities. Unfortunately, conventional microscopes typically support only one modality and rarely allow multiple modalities to be used in conjunction. Though high-end microscopes may support multimodal visualization, they often require either mechanical (and often manual) toggling, which obstruct real-time multimodal imaging, or simultaneous detection via multiple cameras, which dramatically increases the microscope’s cost. Here, we present a one-shot technique that allows multiple imaging channels, of potentially different modalities, to be simultaneously detected by a single camera. We experimentally demonstrate this method on transparent cells that have been tagged for F-actin and nuclear fluorescence. Our multimodal system consists of 2-channel fluorescence and 1-channel quantitative-phase (QP) imaging, and clearly demonstrates ability for simultaneous fluorescent and QP visualization. Though we experimentally verify our framework using dual fluorescent/QP imaging, we emphasize that our framework for single-shot, simultaneous single-camera detection is applicable to an arbitrary number of widefield imaging modalities so long as they fulfill criteria for Fourier spectra separation, SNR, and detector dynamic range

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Shwetadwip Chowdhury and Joseph A. Izatt, "Simultaneous fluorescence and phase imaging with extensions toward sub-diffraction resolution via structured-illumination (Conference Presentation)," Proc. SPIE 9713, Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XXIII, 97131J (Presented at SPIE BiOS: February 17, 2016; Published: 27 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213044.4848767288001.