Transfer-Function Approach to Substrate-Enhanced Diffraction Tomography

Abstract

Forward and backward scattering provide complementary volumetric and interfacial information, yet conventional three-dimensional (3D) imaging typically accesses only one. In this Letter, we present a substrate-enhanced diffraction tomography approach that simultaneously recovers both channels under multi-angle epi-illumination.This geometry captures one forward- and two backward-scattering bands in axially symmetric Fourier regions, where their complementary coverage enables phase-absorption separation in a non-Hermitian spectrum. Explicit 3D transfer functions are derived for both channels, and an axial Kramers-Kronig relation is established to incorporate substrate-induced boundary conditions in a unified framework. Our results establish a label-free, high-resolution 3D imaging modality that surpasses the limits of existing methods.