ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a wide range of advanced techniques are described demonstrating how they convert optical properties within the sample into contrast in an image. All the methods produce widefield images, which can be observed using the operator’s eyes and then stored on a camera. In order to undertake polarization microscopy only minor additions are required to a conventional widefield microscope. Polarization microscopy is little used in the life sciences because the samples are not normally significantly birefringent because they contain large quantities of water. Phase contrast microscopy was invented in the 1930s by Frits Zernike, a Dutch theoretical physicist specializing in optics. Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy has some similarities to phase contrast microscopy in that it relies on changes in the optical path length for contrast in the final image. DIC has several advantages over phase microscopy. In darkfield microscopy the central part of the illumination is obscured and only the peripheral rays enter the sample.
