Science Lab

Science Lab

Science Lab

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments. Explore interactive tutorials and application notes, discover the basics of microscopy as well as high-end technologies – become part of the Science Lab community and share your expertise!

A Guide to Differential Interference Contrast (DIC)

A DIC microscope is a widefield microscopy which has a polarization filter and Wollaston prism between the light source and condenser lens and also between the objective lens and camera sensor or…
Image of a tartaric-acid crystal taken with polarization microscopy. Tartaric acid, a diprotic, aldaric carboxylic acid, is a naturally occurring organic compound notably found in grapes. Tartaric_acids_polarization.jpg

The Polarization Microscopy Principle

Polarization microscopy is routinely used in the material and earth sciences to identify materials and minerals on the basis of their characteristic refractive properties and colors. In biology,…
Images of the same area of a processed wafer taken with standard (left) and oblique (right) brightfield illumination using a Leica compound microscope. The defect on the wafer surface is clearly more visible with oblique illumination.

Rapid Semiconductor Inspection with Microscope Contrast Methods

Semiconductor inspection during the production of patterned wafers and ICs (integrated circuits) is important for identifying and minimizing defects. To increase the efficiency of quality control in…
Neurons imaged with DIC contrast.

Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy

This article demonstrates how differential interference contrast (DIC) can be actually better than brightfield illumination when using microscopy to image unstained biological specimens.
Mouse lung sections

Studying Pulmonary Fibrosis

The results shown in this article demonstrate that fibrotic and non-fibrotic regions of collagen present in mouse lung tissue can be distinguished better with polarized light compared to brightfield.…

Metallography – an Introduction

This article gives an overview of metallography and metallic alloy characterization. Different microscopy techniques are used to study the alloy microstructure, i.e., microscale structure of grains,…

Macroscale to Nanoscale Pore Analysis of Shale and Carbonate Rocks

Physical porosity in rocks, like shale and carbonate, has a large effect on the their storage capacity. The pore geometries also affect their permeability. Imaging the visible pore space provides…
Basalt imaged with crossed polarizers

Digital Microscopy in Earth Science

Classical polarized light (compound) microscopes can only be used for prepared samples, because the working distance they offer is insufficient for whole samples. This means that thicker and bigger…

Quality as Clear as Glass - Polarizing Microscopy in Glass Production

An exquisite beverage deserves a high-quality glass. Even the ancient Romans made artistically crafted drinking glasses. In the Middle Ages, Venetian glassmakers were famous for the purity of their…
Beckman Coulter LinkBeckman Coulter LogoGenedata LinkIDBS LogoIDBS LinkIDBS LogoAbcam Limited LinkAbcam Limited LogoMolecular Devices LinkMolecular Devices LogoPhenomenex LinkPhenomenex LogoSciex LinkSciex LogoAldevron LinkAldevron LogoIDT LinkIDT Logo
Scroll to top