The recent emergence of super-resolution microscopy imaging techniques has
surpassed the diffraction limit to improve image resolution. Contrary to the
breakthroughs of spatial resolution, high temporal resolution remains a challenge. This
dissertation demonstrates a simple, on axis, 4D (3D + time) multi-colour microscopy
imaging (MCMI) technology that delivers simultaneous 3D broadband imaging over
cellular volumes, which is especially applicable to the real-time imaging of fast moving
biospecimens. Quadratically distorted (QD) grating, in the form of an off axis-Fresnel
zone plate, images multiple object planes simultaneously on a single image plane. A
delicate mathematical model of 2D QD grating has been established and implemented in
the design and optimization of QD grating. Grism, a blazed grating and prism
combination, achieves chromatic control in the 4D multi-plane imaging. A pair of
grisms, whose separation can be varied, provide a collimated beam with a tuneable
chromatic shear from a collimated polychromatic input. The optical system based on
QD grating and grisms has been simply appended to the camera port of a commercial
microscope, and a few bioimaging tests have been performed, i.e. the 4D chromatically
corrected imaging of fluorescence microspheres, MCF-7 and HeLa cells. Further
investigation of bioimaging problems is still in progress
