DEFENISION; A microscope in which the object viewed is

illuminated by polarized light. Since some materials act

like polarizing filters, viewing objects with polarized light
can reveal such materials when ordinary light would fail to
bring them into relief.
Polarizing microscopes are built like regular optical
microscope, but are fitted with some extra features. Unlike
regular microscopes which use normal light, a polarizing
microscope uses polarized light to study specimens
A polarizing microscope is a microscope that is mainly
used in geological studies to study geological specimens.
For this reason, it is also known as a petrographic
microscope. It is used in other scientific fields such as
medicine and biology as well.
Polarizing microscopes are built like regular optical
microscope, but are fitted with some extra features. Unlike
regular microscopes which use normal light, a polarizing
microscope uses polarized light to study specimens. In
polarized light, the light waves vibrate in one direction; in
normal light, the light waves vibrate in random directions.
Polarized light cannot be seen by human eyes in normal
circumstances. It can, however, be used in polarized light
microscopy to highlight features of minerals and other
materials. A polarizing microscope uses the birefringent
optical properties of anisotropic materials to study them.
Anisotropic materials are solid substances that have several
refractive indices; isotropic materials, which includes gases
and liquids, have only one refractive index. Birefringence
or double refraction occurs when a light wave passing
through an anisotropic material is split into two rays of
differing velocities.
Geological specimens are pared or ground into thin sections
for study. The specimen to be studied is placed on a slide
on a rotatable specimen stage. The specimen is then
illuminated by a light source under the specimen stage.
The light passes through a polarizing filter called the
polarizer and then passes through the birefringent
specimen. The polarizer is usually fixed in an east to west
vibrational direction, but it can be rotated as required.
There is one more polarizing filter called the analyzer. It is
usually situated above the objectives and can be moved in
and out of the optical path.
The objectives used in a polarizing microscope are required
to be strain free. The eyepiece may have a cross wire
graticule or a photomicrography graticule. The cross wire
graticule makes it easier to center in on the view. The
photomicrography graticule is helpful in selecting an area
for capture on film.
Many polarizing microscopes have a Bertrand lens. It is
situated between the eyepiece and the objective. A Bertrand
lens helps in studying the back focal plane of the objective
to find out interference figure.
Related topics
Compensation and retardation plates may also be used in
polarizing light microscopy to better observe optical path
differences. These plates can be inserted in a slot in the
eyepiece or slotted in a tube between the body and eyepiece
tubes.
Discuss this Article

Written by Sonal Panse

Edited by Bronwyn Harris
Last Modified: 09 September 2010 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Polarization (also polarisation) is a property of certain

types of waves that describes the orientation of their
oscillations. Electromagnetic waves, such as light, and
gravitational waves exhibit polarization; acoustic waves
(sound waves) in a gas or liquid do not have polarization
because the direction of vibration and direction of
propagation are the same.
By convention, the polarization of light is described by
specifying the orientation of the wave's electric field at a
point in space over one period of the oscillation. When
light travels in free space, in most cases it propagates as a
transverse wave—the polarization is perpendicular to the
wave's direction of travel. In this case, the electric field
may be oriented in a single direction (linear polarization),
or it may rotate as the wave travels (circular or elliptical
polarization). In the latter cases, the oscillations can rotate
rightward or leftward in the direction of travel, and which
of those two rotations is present in a wave is called the
wave's chirality or handedness. In general the polarization
of an electromagnetic (EM) wave is a complex issue. For
instance in a waveguide such as an optical fiber, or for
radially polarized beams in free space,[1] the description of
the wave's polarization is more complicated, as the fields
can have longitudinal as well as transverse components.
Such EM waves are either TM or hybrid modes.
For longitudinal waves such as sound waves in fluids, the
direction of oscillation is by definition along the direction
of travel, so there is no polarization. In a solid medium,
however, sound waves can be transverse. In this case, the
polarization is associated with the direction of the shear
stress in the plane perpendicular to the propagation
direction. This is important in seismology.
Polarization is significant in areas of science and
technology dealing with wave propagation, such as optics,
seismology, telecommunications and radar science. The
polarization of light can be measured with a polarimeter

PETROGRAFIC MICROSCOPE;
A petrographic microscope is a type of optical
microscope used in petrology and optical mineralogy to
identify rocks and minerals in thin sections. The
microscope is used in optical mineralogy and petrography,
a branch of petrology which focuses on detailed
descriptions of rocks. The method is called "polarized light
microscopy" (PLM). Depending on the grade of
observation required, petrological microscopes are derived
from conventional brightfield microscopes of similar basic
capabilities by:
 • adding a polarizer filter to the light path beneath the
sample slide
• replacing the normal stage with a circular rotating
stage (typically graduated with vernier scales for
reading orientations to better than 1 degree of arc)
• adding a second rotatable and removable polarizer
filter, called the analyzer, to the light path between
objective and eyepiece.
Petrographic microscopes are constructed with optical parts
that do not add unwanted polarizing effects due to strained
glass, or polarization by reflection in prisms and mirrors.
These special parts add to the cost and complexity of the
microscope. However, a "simple polarizing" microscope is
easily made by adding inexpensive polarizing filters to a
standard biological microscope, often with one in a filter
holder beneath the condenser, and a second inserted
beneath the head or eyepiece. These might be sufficient for
many non-quantitative purposes.

PRINCICLE OF POLARIZING MICROS COPE

The polarized light microscope is designed to observe and
photograph specimens that are visible primarily due to their
optically anisotropic character. In order to accomplish this
task, the microscope must be equipped with both a
polarizer, positioned in the light path somewhere before
the specimen, and an analyzer (a second polarizer; see
Figure 1), placed in the optical pathway between the
objective rear aperture and the observation tubes or camera
port. Image contrast arises from the interaction of plane-
polarized light with a birefringent (or doubly-refracting)
specimen to produce two individual wave components that
are each polarized in mutually perpendicular planes. The
velocities of these components, which are termed the
ordinary and the extraordinary wavefronts (Figure 1), are
different and vary with the propagation direction through
the specimen. After exiting the specimen, the light
components become out of phase, but are recombined with
constructive and destructive interference when they pass
through the analyzer. These concepts are outlined in Figure
1 for the wavefront field generated by a hypothetical
birefringent specimen. In addition, the critical optical and
mechanical components of a modern polarized light
microscope are illustrated in the figure.
Polarized light microscopy is capable of providing
information on absorption color and optical path
boundaries between minerals of differing refractive indices,
in a manner similar to brightfield illumination, but the
technique can also distinguish between isotropic and
anisotropic substances. Furthermore, the contrast-
enhancing technique exploits the optical properties specific
to anisotropy and reveals detailed information concerning
the structure and composition of materials that are
invaluable for identification and diagnostic purposes.
Isotropic materials, which include a variety of gases,
liquids, unstressed glasses and cubic crystals, demonstrate
the same optical properties when probed in all directions.
These materials have only one refractive index and no
restriction on the vibration direction of light passing
through them. In contrast, anisotropic materials, which
include 90 percent of all solid substances, have optical
properties that vary with the orientation of incident light
with the crystallographic axes. They demonstrate a range of
refractive indices depending both on the propagation
direction of light through the substance and on the
vibrational plane coordinates. More importantly,
anisotropic materials act as beamsplitters and divide light
rays into two orthogonal components (as illustrated in
Figure 1). The technique of polarizing microscopy exploits
the interference of the split light rays, as they are re-united
along the same optical path to extract information about
anisotropic materials.
APPLICATIONS
Geology

Photomicrograph of a volcanic sand grain; TIONS ;

Chemistry
Polarization is principally of importance in chemistry due
to circular dichroism and "optical rotation" (circular
birefringence) exhibited by optically active (chiral)
molecules. It may be measured using polarimetry
The term "polarization" may also refer to the through-bond
(inductive or resonant effect) or through-space influence of
a nearby functional group on the electronic properties (e.g.
dipole moment) of a covalent bond or atom. This concept is
based on the formation of an electric dipole within a
molecule, which is generally not related to the polarization
of electromagnetic waves.
Polarized light does interact with anisotropic materials,
which is the basis for birefringence. This is usually seen in
crystalline materials and is especially useful in geology (see
above). The polarized light is "double refracted", as the
refractive index is different for horizontally and vertically
polarized light in these materials. This is to say, the
polarizability of anisotropic materials is not equivalent in
all directions. This anisotropy causes changes in the
polarization of the incident beam, and is easily observable
using cross-polar microscopy or polarimetry. The optical
rotation of chiral compounds (as opposed to achiral
compounds that form anisotropic crystals), is derived from
circular birefringence. Like linear birefringence described
above, circular birefringence is the "double refraction" of
circular polarized light.[10]
[edit]
Main article: Polarization in astronomy
Although not usually a factor in the thermal radiation of
stars, polarization is also present in radiation from coherent
astronomical sources (e.g. hydroxyl or methanol masers),
and incoherent sources such as the large radio lobes in
active galaxies, and pulsar radio radiation (which may, it is
speculated, sometimes be coherent), and is also imposed
upon. Apart from providing information on sources of
radiation and scattering, polarization also probes the
interstellar magnetic field via Faraday rotation. The
polarization of the cosmic microwave background is being
used to study the physics of the very early universe. dipole
moment) radiation is inherently polarised.
[edit]
Historical stereoscopic projection displays used linear
polarization encoding because it was inexpensive and
offered good separation. Circular polarization makes left-
eye/right-eye separation insensitive to the viewing
orientation; circular polarization is used in typical 3-D
movie exhibition today, such as the system from RealD.
Polarized 3-D only works on screens that maintain
polarization (such as silver screens); a normal projection
screen would cause depolarization which would void the
effect.
[edit]
All radio transmitting and receiving antennas are
intrinsically polarized, special use[clarification needed] of which is
made in radar. Most antennas radiate either horizontal,
vertical, or circular polarization although elliptical
polarization also exists. The electric field or E-plane
determines the polarization or orientation of the radio
wave. Vertical polarization is most often used when it is
desired to radiate a radio signal in all directions such as
widely distributed mobile units. AM and FM radio use
vertical polarization, while television uses horizontal
polarization. Alternating vertical and horizontal
polarization is used on satellite communications (including
television satellites), to allow the satellite to carry two
separate transmissions on a given frequency, thus doubling
the number of customers a single satellite can serve.
Electronically controlled birefringent devices are used in
combination with polarizing filters as modulators in fiber
optics.
[edit] Materials science

Strain in plastic glasses

In engineering, the relationship between strain and
birefringence motivates the use of polarization in
characterizing the distribution of stress and strain in
prototypes.
[edit] Navigation
Sky polarization has been exploited in the "sky compass",
which was used in the 1950s when navigating near the
poles of the Earth's magnetic field when neither the sun nor
stars were visible (e.g. under daytime cloud or twilight). It
has been suggested, controversially, that the Vikings
exploited a similar device (the "sunstone") in their
extensive expeditions across the North Atlantic in the 9th–
11th centuries, before the arrival of the magnetic compass
in Europe in the 12th century. Related to the sky compass is
the "polar clock", invented by Charles Wheatstone in the
late 19th century.
[edit] In photography, polarizing filters are used, mostly
to improve the appearance of the sky (deeper blue, and clouds
more visible):

A polarizer filters out the polarized component of light

from the sky in a color photograph, increasing contrast with
the clouds (right).
[edit] Art
Several visual artists have worked with polarized light and
birefringent materials to create colorful, sometimes
changing images. One example is contemporary artist
Austine Wood Comarow, whose "Polage" art works have
been exhibited at the Museum of Science, Boston,[1] the
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in
Albuquerque, NM, and the Cité des Sciences et de
l'Industrie (the City of Science and Industry) in Paris.[11][12]
The artist works by cutting hundreds of small pieces of
cellophane and other birefringent films and laminating
them between plane polarizing filters.