Quantifying the performance of holographic tomography systems using the 3D-printed biological cell phantom

Michał Ziemczonok , Arkadiusz Kuś , Małgorzata Kujawińska

Abstract

Holographic tomography (HT) is a measurement technique utilizing refractive index (RI) as imaging contrast and enabling wide spectrum of applications in modern cell biology. Acquired 3D RI distribution, however, is strongly influenced by the measurement setup and data processing, which calls for reliable tools and methods to characterize and compare metrological parameters of the resulting reconstruction. In this paper we demonstrate and analyze the differences in reconstructions of a 3D-printed test object, which has the optical and structural features of a typical biological (mammalian) cell and has been fabricated at the sufficient level of accuracy for both the geometrical shape and RI distribution metrology. Experimental results have been acquired using commercial and research HT systems and further compared with reference data in an attempt to show the contribution of hardware and software components to the total error. The metrological performance is quantified and discussed in the context of the parameters that are usually of interest during the biomedical interpretation stage such as 3D resolution, volume, RI and dry mass of subcellular structures.