With a long experience in Image Sensor Functionalization, SILIOS technologies recently undertook the development of custom Wavefront Imagers for Microscopy based on commercial CMOS and InGaAS  sensors and is now offering off-the-shelf Wavefront Imaging Cameras : the MAKATEA camera, the TIKEI camera and the TAKUME camera.










​Cross-grating microscopy (CGM), also known as QLSI (Quadriwave Lateral Shearing Interferometry), is a Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) technique capable of mapping the refractive index within a transparent or semi-transparent sample with high sensitivity (<1 nm), and high spatial resolution (reaching the diffraction limit).

Outside the field of Microscopy, QLSI can also be used for optical metrology, Laser measurement and material inspection, ophtalmology and many other photonic applications.

QLSI was invented and patented in 2000 by J. Primot et al. (ONERA).

In Microscopy, the MAKATEA and the TIKEI cameras, which cover the VIS/NIR range, can be easily implemented on the port of upright or inverted optical microscopes and has been designed for the high-precision characterization of samples such as:
- Living Cells (**): neurons & neurites, organelles, vesicles, bacteria, eukaryoptic cells, algae, yeast, archaea, virus, ...
- Nanophotonics objects: nanoparticles, 2D-materials, metasurfaces, nanowires, ...

(**) The MAKATEA and the TIKEI cameras are particularly valuable for single-cell dry mass measurements, from a single image acquisition. Indeed during its life, the dry mass of a cell, i.e., the mass of all cellular content except water, is deeply modified. These changes are related to all the metabolic and structural cell functions. The study of dry mass consequently provides crucial insights into cellular aspects, such as the cell cycle, the impact of stimuli or drugs, as well as cell metabolism. This knowledge proved valuable for studying individual cell or cell populations.
 
The TAKUME camera, due to the SWIR spectral range are covers, is particularly well suited for metasurfaces analysis and (SWIR) 1 µm range and 1.55 µm Laser beam analysis and measurements.

Applications : 

The quantitative nature of the measurements enables:
- Quantitative phase imaging, speckle-free,
- Measurement of the biomass of single living cells with a sub-pg precision, and dry mass density (pg/µm²),
- Birefringence imaging,
- Mapping of the complex optical polarizability of nanoparticles,
- Mapping of the complex refractive index of graphene and other 2D materials,
- Temperature microscopy,
- Mapping the wavefront profiles of metasurfaces,
- Single-shot phase-fluorescence imaging,
- Surface roughness/topography characterization at lambda/1000
- ...