Overcoming Polarization Aberrations In Microscopy

Eric W. Hansen

doi:10.1117/12.944306

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29 June 1988 Overcoming Polarization Aberrations In Microscopy

Eric W. Hansen

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Proceedings Volume 0891, Polarization Considerations for Optical Systems; (1988) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.944306
Event: 1988 Los Angeles Symposium: O-E/LASE '88, 1988, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

A long-standing problem in polarized light microscopy has been the inability, due to polarization aberrations, to achieve simultaneously high spatial resolution and high contrast. The rotation of the plane of polarization at oblique interfaces between crossed polars causes the pupil function to resemble a dark cross rather than being uniformly dark. Likewise, the point spread function has the visual appearance of a four-leaf clover rather than the ideal Airy disk, and is also space-variant. Images formed with these systems are severely degraded. In this paper the theory of polarization aberrations is applied to the analysis of three solutions to this problem: Reducing the system aperture to block troublesome high-aperture rays; the AVEC-POL method, in which high bias compensation introduces counterbalancing aberrations; and the polarization rectifier, an optical element designed to introduce equal and opposite rotations of the electric vector.

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Eric W. Hansen "Overcoming Polarization Aberrations In Microscopy", Proc. SPIE 0891, Polarization Considerations for Optical Systems, (29 June 1988); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.944306