Polarization, the path traced by light's electric field vector, appears in all areas of optics. In
recent decades, various technologies have enabled the precise control of light's polarization …

Polarized Light and Optical Systems presents polarization optics for undergraduate and
graduate students in a way which makes classroom teaching relevant to current issues in …

In the search for higher resolution, modern day imaging systems frequently employ objective
lenses with a high numerical aperture. Propagation of light through such lenses introduces a …

Seldom has the introduction of a new instrument generated as instant an excitement among
biologists as the laser-scanning confocal microscope. With the new microscope, one can …

For most optical systems it is typically assumed that the transmitted wavefront has uniform for
Gaussian) amplitude and constant polarization state. This is the default assumption of …

Video cameras with contrast and black level controls can yield polarized light and differential
interference contrast microscope images with unprecedented image quality, resolution, and …

Detailed knowledge of the image of the point spread function (PSF) is necessary to optimize
astronomical coronagraph masks and to understand potential sources of errors in …

While chiral molecular rotors have unique frames and cavities to possibly generate
switchable chiroptical functions, it still remains a formidable challenge to precisely restrict …

We have measured the birefringence of microtubules (MTs) and of MT-based
macromolecular assemblies in vitro and in living cells by using the new Pol-Scope. A single …

It has been four years since the publication of the? rst edition of this book. During these four
years optical imaging has advanced considerably. Nevertheless, when we were asked to …