Workshop on ODP for Enterprise Computing (WODPEC 2006)

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for viewing of phase phenomena by forming the image of an object by using the undiffracted beam and essentially only one of the sidebands and attenuating the undiffracted beam and the sideband at a rear focal plane of an image forming lens. My invention may readily be implemented in a conventional microscope by use of a suitable aperture in the front focal plane of a condenser lens and a suitable attenuator in the rear focal plane of the objective lens. In one embodiment, the condenser aperture is essentially semi-circular. The attenuator comprises a polarizer, a polarization filter and an analyzer with the filter being located substantially in the rear focal plane. The polarization sensitive filter is divided in equal halves one of which consists of polarization sensitive material having a direction of polarization that is perpendicular to that of the other half. Preferably, the polarization sensitive filter is mounted so that the image of the undiffracted beam formed by the condenser aperture is coincident with only one of the two halves of the polarization filter.