Photon-Counting Three-Dimensional Fluorescence Imaging Based on the Transport of Intensity Equation

A transport of intensity equation (TIE) based three-dimensional (3D) fluorescence imaging using photon-counting detection was proposed for low light-level bioimaging applications. The number of photons required to achieve the quantitative phase measurement using the proposed system was investigated experimentally and numerically. Results show that the feasibility of reconstructing phase information with an average number of photons is greater than about 9 per pixel in our plant cells. © 2024 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement.