Surface plasmon interferometric microscopy for three-dimensional imaging of dynamic processes

A method, which we named surface plasmon interferometric microscopy, for real-time displaying of the dynamic evolution of the refractive index (RI) of a sample in three-dimensions is demonstrated experimentally The Fourier fringe analysis technique is employed to get the phase variations of the samples by demodulating the interference patterns captured by a CCD camera, and the 3D RI distribution can be obtained through numerical interpolation from the relation between the phase and the RI of the samples. Our method may provide an interesting way to monitor fast dynamics of physical, biological, and chemical processes in real time. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.