Advances in 3D Optical Imaging: Methods, Systems, and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Three-dimensional optical imaging systems have become indispensable for non-invasive, high-resolution visualization, with transformative progress over the past three decades, fuelled by advances in optics, photonics, sensors and computational approaches. Modern three-dimensional optical techniques, including digital holographic microscopy, optical coherence tomography, light-field imaging, hyperspectral imaging and photoacoustic imaging, enable quantitative, non-invasive and high-resolution visualization of complex structures across multiple scales. The integration of advanced signal processing-based reconstruction algorithms, inverse modelling and data-driven approaches, including machine learning and deep neural networks, has significantly improved image quality, depth resolution and noise robustness. These developments have expanded the applicability of three-dimensional optical imaging across a wide range of domains, with applications extending well beyond conventional boundaries. For instance, in biomedicine, digital holographic microscopy, hyperspectral imaging, photoacoustic imaging and optical coherence tomography play critical roles in cellular imaging, tissue characterization, disease diagnosis and guided therapy, among other applications. In industrial and engineering domains, digital holographic microscopy and hyperspectral imaging support precision metrology, defect inspection, surface profiling and monitoring of micro-nano fabrication, to name a few. Furthermore, the convergence of hardware innovation with computational and AI-based techniques is enabling compact, cost-effective and real-time three-dimensional imaging platforms. 

This Special Issue aims to showcase recent advances in a range of three-dimensional optical imaging systems, highlighting their growing impact across scientific fields.

Dr. Inbarasan Muniraj
Dr. Manoj Kumar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• digital holography
• quantitative phase imaging
• optical coherence tomography
• hyperspectral imaging
• computational imaging
• structured illumination
• AI for optics