Abstract

For the use of color phase contrast in microscopy, which was first discussed in the Spring of 1948, several difficult requirements must be met for the attainment of maximum brilliance and usefulness. The system itself is one in which a controlled chromatism of the phase plate is sought instead of the customary control of phase difference at one wave-length only. The thickness and dispersion of the phase ring in relation to the general aperture can be such that zero phase contrast will occur at one or more wave-lengths of transition in color sensation. If the phase contrast is made high but opposite in several spectral zones of relatively pure color sensation, striking and beautiful microscopical images are formed with objects of low inherent contrast. The greatest advantage of the system lies not in the beauty of the images, but in the clear distinction which is afforded between effects caused by scattering or general absorption and those caused by small differences of refractive index or thickness.

© 1950 Optical Society of America

The Measurement of Unresolved, Single Particles of Uniform Thickness by Means of Variable Phase Microscopy*

Harold Osterberg and Gilbert E. Pride
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 40(2) 64-73 (1950)

Phase Contrast Microscopy for Opaque Specimens*

James R. Benford and Richard L. Seidenberg
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 40(5) 314-316 (1950)

Image Contrast in Phase-Contrast Microscopy

Paul H. Keck and Arthur T. Brice
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 39(7) 507-514 (1949)

The Effects of Daylight and Tungsten Light-Adaptation on Color Perception*,†

R. W. G. Hunt
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 40(6) 362-371 (1950)

Color Correction with Colored Couplers*

W. T. Hanson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 40(3) 166-171 (1950)