Quantitative polarized light microscopy

We describe a simple modification to a confocal microscope, which analyses the state of polarization of light emerging from the specimen so as to permit quantitative polarized light microscopy to be performed. The system uses a novel form of rotating analyser which, together with lock‐in detection, permits images to be obtained where the image contrast corresponds to both specimen retardance and orientation (e.g. in the case of a birefringent specimen). Images are presented from a wide range of specimens and the origin of the contrast observed from simple point scatterers is investigated both theoretically and experimentally.