Improving DIC microscopy with polarization modulation

It is demonstrated experimentally, as well as analytically, that when the polarization of the light incident upon the first Nomarski–Wollaston prism in a differential interference contrast (DIC) light microscope is switched by 908, image highlights are changed into shadows and vice versa. Using an inexpensive ferroelectric liquid-crystal modulator, which is easily installed in the microscope, this switching can be done at 30 frames s, synchronized to the camera. Subtraction of alternate digitized frames generates a stream of images in which contrast is doubled, compared with conventional video-enhanced DIC, while image defects and noise tend to cancel. Subtraction of alternate images is carried out efficiently by frame buffer operations and amounts to massively parallel synchronous detection. The new method eliminates the problems inherent in obtaining a separate background image, as required by current videoenhanced DIC practice, without loss of resolution.