Explore how a birefringent (doubly refracting) crystal behaves in a polarized light microscope. This tutorial simulates a virtual microscope utilizing crossed polarizers. Instructions for operating the tutorial appear below the applet window.

When the tutorial first initializes, the crystal is positioned in an East-West direction with respect to the long axis of the crystal and is almost invisible in crossed polarized illumination. Use the Stage Rotation Angle slider to rotate the crystal through a full 360-degree rotation of the microscope stage. When the crystal is oriented at 45-degree angles to the long crosshairs, it is at maximum brightness. A virtual full-wave retardation plate can be inserted (with radio buttons) between the specimen and the analyzer to measure birefringence of the crystal.

---

BACK TO OPTICAL BIREFRINGENCE

BACK TO LIGHT AND COLOR

Questions or comments? Send us an email.

© 1995-2022 by Michael W. Davidson, Kirill I. Tchourioukanov, and The Florida State University. All Rights Reserved. No images, graphics, software, scripts, or applets may be reproduced or used in any manner without permission from the copyright holders. Use of this website means you agree to the Legal Terms and Conditions set forth by the owners.

This website is maintained by our
Graphics & Web Programming Team
in collaboration with Optical Microscopy at the
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Last modification: Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 08:10 AM

Access Count Since December 24, 1999: 75571

Visit the websites of our partners in education: