Universal approach to wave-optical calculations of point spread functions in microscopy (and beyond)

Optical microscopy is fundamental to modern life-science research, yet interpreting its results requires precise modelling of point spread functions (PSFs) within complex environments. This manuscript introduces a versatile and efficient approach to wave-optical PSF calculations that incorporates detection PSF modelling through the principle of reciprocity. Accompanying this work are free MATLAB and Python software packages centred on a single, minimalistic core function, PlaneWaveExc , which utilizes a plane-wave superposition based on the Richards-Wolf model. Despite its simplicity, the framework accounts for „real-life“ complexities such as systemic aberrations, arbitrary amplitude and phase modulations (including non-axial cases), and stratified media with complex-valued refractive indices using a transmission matrix formalism. We demonstrate the software’s broad applicability through diverse case studies, including single-molecule imaging, STED microscopy, the segmented aperture of the James Webb Space Telescope, and coherent wide-field iSCAT microscopy. Each example is supported by dedicated scripts to facilitate adaptation for specific research needs.