Differential interference contrast microscopy using Savart plates

A new differential interference contrast microscopy (DICM), which uses Savart prisms as a shearing plate and a phase-shifting device, is proposed. The system consists of a phase-shifting module (PSM) and a DICM module (DICMM). The PSM has two Savart prisms: the first prism separates the incident beam into two parallel beams, and the second prism recombines these two beams. The optical path difference (OPD) of the two beams, which is represented by a biased OPD, can be adjusted by rotating the angle of the normal surface of the second prism. In the DICMM, the other Savart prism is used to replace the Nomarski prism (NP) in conventional DICM. It combines with an afocal microscopic system (AMS) to produce a Savart-DICM system, which is able to perform a phase-shifting technique by changing the biased OPD to produce a phase shift of π/2 for each step. This paper describes the configuration and measurement theory of the microscope. The experimental results confirm the validity and capability of the proposed microscope.