Quantitative differential interference contrast microscopy based on structured-aperture interference

We report a quantitative differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope based on a structured-aperture (SA) wavefront sensor. Unlike a conventional DIC microscope, the SA-DIC microscope can separate the amplitude and the phase gradient information of the image wavefront, and form quantitative intensity and DIC images of the sample with good resolution; our prototype achieved resolution similar to 2 mu m. Furthermore, due to the nonpolarization nature of the microscope, we were able to image birefringent samples without artifacts. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.