Paper
27 August 2008 Polarization-dependent nonlinear phase contrast by using dye-doped nematic liquid crystals
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Abstract
Nonlinear phase contrast microscopy is an optical technique that uses an intensity-dependent refractive index material to produce high-contrasted images of transparent specimens. Earlier proposal of liquid crystals as phase filters for phase contrast applications used optically addressed spatial light modulators fabricated with photoconductive film. Here, we propose the use of a simpler planar nematic liquid crystal cell doped with 1% wt methyl red. Owing to their polarization dependent enhancement factor a tunable phase filter can be photoinduced efficiently. Thus, images of different degree of contrast (and even contrast reversal) can be obtained either by rotating the polarization vector. All optical real-time imaging of dynamic events can be performed and image processing such as edge enhancement is demonstrated.
© (2008) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Rosario Porras-Aguilar, Marcelo D. Iturbe-Castillo, Julio C. Ramirez-San-Juan, Oscar Baldovino-Pantaleon, David Sanchez de la Llave, Ruben Ramos-Garcia, and Luis Arroyo-Carrasco "Polarization-dependent nonlinear phase contrast by using dye-doped nematic liquid crystals", Proc. SPIE 7050, Liquid Crystals XII, 705006 (27 August 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.791556
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KEYWORDS
Phase contrast

Polarization

Nonlinear filtering

Liquid crystals

Optical filters

Nonlinear optics

Microscopes

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