Quantitative Visible-Light and Electron Phase Microscopy

Abstract

At the University of Melbourne we have been pursuing an ongoing program of investigation into the recovery of phase information from intensity measurements [1-9]. In this paper we consider the implications of this work in optical and electron microscopy.Many objects of interest to biologists are phase objects which means that light is slowed and refracted in the object but not absorbed. Techniques such as phase-contrast microscopy and Nomarski differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy are traditionally used to render the phase structure visible but do not directly map the phase distribution and are unable to produce quantitative data. These techniques also entangle the phase and am..