3D tracking the Brownian motion of colloidal particles using digital holographic microscopy and joint reconstruction

In-line digital holography is a valuable tool for sizing, locating, and tracking micro- or nano-objects in a volume. When a parametric imaging model is available, inverse problem approaches provide a straightforward estimate of the object parameters by fitting data with the model, thereby allowing accurate reconstruction. As recently proposed and demonstrated, combining pixel super-resolution techniques with inverse problem approaches improves the estimation of particle size and 3D position. Here, we demonstrate the accurate tracking of colloidal particles in Brownian motion. Particle size and 3D position are jointly optimized from video holograms acquired with a digital holographic microscopy setup based on a low-end microscope objective (×20, NA 0.5). Exploiting information redundancy makes it possible to characterize particles with a standard deviation of 15 nm in size and a theoretical resolution of 2×2×5  nm3 for position under additive white Gaussian noise assumption.