3D imaging properties of a polarized light microscope revealed by birefringence measurements of small calcite crystals

Michael I. Shribak; Rudolf Oldenbourg

doi:10.1117/12.424522

16 April 2001 3D imaging properties of a polarized light microscope revealed by birefringence measurements of small calcite crystals

Michael I. Shribak, Rudolf Oldenbourg

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4261, Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing VIII; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.424522
Event: BiOS 2001 The International Symposium on Biomedical Optics, 2001, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

We used a new type of polarized light microscope (Pol-Scope) equipped with a precision universal compensator to record images of small, uniaxial birefringent crystals. Pol-Scope measurements of small calcite crystals represent complete in-focus and out-of-focus retardance maps of the crystals. We relate the 3-D retardance maps to the crystal morphologies and the directions of their optic axes in three dimensional space. In addition to single crystal measurements, we also recorded 3-D retardance maps of small clusters of crystals to study the superposition of overlapping image features. We demonstrate that the retardance of overlapping image features in cluster images can be theoretically predicted by combining separately recorded single crystal images. Our experimental and theoretical analysis indicates that the superposition of retardance features is equivalent to adding incoherently the respective intensity values that were recorded with the Pol-Scope using different compensator settings. This analysis is part of a larger effort towards establishing 3-D image restoration procedures for polarized light imaging.

Citation Download Citation

Michael I. Shribak and Rudolf Oldenbourg "3D imaging properties of a polarized light microscope revealed by birefringence measurements of small calcite crystals", Proc. SPIE 4261, Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing VIII, (16 April 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.424522

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