Darkfield Illumination

Section Overview:

Darkfield microscopy is a specialized illumination technique that capitalizes on oblique illumination to enhance contrast in specimens that are not imaged well under normal brightfield illumination conditions. After the zeroth order (direct) light has been blocked by an opaque stop in the substage condenser, light passing through the specimen from oblique angles at all azimuths is diffracted, refracted, and reflected into the microscope objective to form a bright image of the specimen superimposed onto a dark background.

Review Articles

Contributing Authors

Mortimer Abramowitz - Olympus America, Inc., Two Corporate Center Drive., Melville, New York, 11747.

Kirill I. Tchourioukanov and Michael W. Davidson - National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr., The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32310.