Computational optical sectioning microscopy using an engineered PSF with reduced depth variability — Proof of concept

In this simulation study, an engineered point-spread function (PSF) with reduced depth variability (due to depth-induced aberrations) was applied to three-dimensional computational optical-sectioning microscopy (COSM) imaging to investigate its impact on image restoration. Intermediate synthetic images from PSF-engineered COSM in the presence of aberrations were computed and then processed using a depth-variant expectation maximization algorithm. The restored images were compared to images simulated for traditional COSM. Results show that PSF-engineered COSM achieves better image restoration than conventional COSM and has the potential to improve imaging in the presence of depth-induced aberrations.