Zeiss compound microscope Normarski polarizing sliders
Polarized light microscopy is used to observe and photograph specimens that are made visible due to their optically anisotropic character To accomplish this the microscope must be fitted with both a polarizer held in the light path placed before the specimen and an analyzer the second polarizer used in the optical pathway between the objective rear aperture and the observation tubes or camera port Image contrast arises from the interaction of plane polarized light with a birefringent or doubly refracting specimen to produce two individual wave components that are each polarized in mutually perpendicular planes The velocities of these components are different and vary with the propagation direction through the specimen After exiting the specimen the light components become out of phase but are recombined with constructive and destructive interference when they pass through the analyzer Polarized light is a contrast enhancing technique that improves the quality of the image obtained with birefringent materials when compared to other techniques such as darkfield and brightfield illumination differential interference contrast phase contrast Hoffman modulation contrast and fluorescence
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Keywords: compound, contrast, crystals, dic, differential, interference, light, microscope, minerals, normarski, polarized, polarizing, sliders, zeiss
