Characterization of microscope setup under transmissive LCD in frequency domain

Abstract

This study addresses the hardware-induced limitations of transmissive liquid crystal displays (LCDs) when utilized as programmable spatial light modulators in computational microscopy. While cost-effective, the physical architecture of these displays—specifically the interstitial opaque dead spaces (grid wires) separating the pixels—introduces structural spatial aliasing and discrete spectral blind spots in the Fourier plane. We propose a computational framework utilizing a high-fidelity digital twin simulation of the optical setup paired with a stabilized 11×11 aperture-scanning Fourier ptychography (AS-FP) routine to bypass these bottlenecks. By employing an adaptive, linearly decaying step-size rule across 121 overlapping sub-apertures, the system computationally unmixes convolved grid harmonics and recovers high-frequency information physically obscured by the hardware. Quantitative evaluation via Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) demonstrates a significant resolution enhancement, extending structured contrast preservation from a baseline of 20 lp/mm in single-shot captures to a synthetic numerical aperture limit of 80 lp/mm. These results predict the achievable performance of consumer-grade transmissive elements for high-fidelity, super-resolution phase retrieval microscopy.