Spatially modulated illumination allows for light sheet fluorescence microscopy with an incoherent source and compressive sensing

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy has become one of the most widely used techniques for three-dimensional imaging due to its high speed and low phototoxicity. Further improvements in 3D microscopy require limiting the light exposure of the sample and increasing the volumetric acquisition rate. We hereby present an imaging technique that allows volumetric reconstruction of the fluorescent sample using spatial modulation on a selective illumination volume. We demonstrate that this can be implemented using an incoherent LED source, avoiding shadowing artifacts, typical of light sheet microscopy. Furthermore, we show that spatial modulation allows the use of Compressive Sensing, reducing the number of modulation patterns to be acquired. We present results on zebrafish embryos which prove that selective spatial modulation can be used to reconstruct relatively large volumes without any mechanical movement. The technique yields an accurate reconstruction of the sample anatomy even at significant compression ratios, achieving higher volumetric acquisition rate and reducing photodamage biological samples.