Fourier transform based high speed snapshot multi-color fluorescence acquisition

Hyperpsectral fluorescence imaging has been gaining its popularity in life-science field for its simultaneous multiplexing capability of multiple fluorescent labels. Traditional diffraction grating-based hyperspectral acquisition has limited photon-throughput due to the loss at the diffractive optics. The uniform spectral sampling using multiple narrow spectral bands also limits the detectable photons for each channel, which limits the imaging speed as longer exposure is required to achieve sufficient signal to noise ratios. Here we present a Fourier transform-based spectral sampling strategy based on high efficiency dichroic mirrors, enabling video-speed snapshot acquisition with the capability of multiplexing more than five fluorescent signatures.