Prism-assisted achromatic diffraction system for multi-focus biological microimaging

•Developed a novel aberration-corrected multi-focus microscope based on the principle of the opposite dispersion in refraction and diffraction lenses.•The achromatic method by equilateral triangular prism is more applicable compared with the existing achromatic methods.•The multi-focus microscope can facilitate the rapid acquisition of 3D data and real time observation for live cells in a wide range of depth.