| Polarized light microscopy plays an important role in liquid crystal research. We have developed a new type of polarized light microscope, the LC-PolScope, that measures specimen birefringence, its magnitude (retardance) and orientation (azimuth), in fast time intervals (~1 sec), and at high spatial resolution (>200 nm). Recently we added a microlens array to our LC-PolScope setup for implementing the new method of "polarized light field microscopy". The microlens array is located in the image plane of the microscope's objective lens. A CCD camera behind the array captures a hybrid image that consists of a large array of small conoscopic images, each specific to a small sample area. The technique combines an orthoscopic image of the specimen with a multitude of conoscopic images in one single camera exposure.
I will discuss the measurement principle of the LC-PolScope, its implementation as an imaging tool, and its application for probing the architectural dynamics in living cells and the molecular order in colloidal liquid crystals. |