I have three sliders for my CTS M72 Polarizing Microscope, but I am struggling to understand how they are used.
All three are marked with the word ‘Slow’ and a directional arrow, but only the Quartz Wedge seems to vary in its behaviour when inserted to differing extent. ... So what does the word ‘Slow’ imply ?
. .
To my very limited understanding:
The Mica plate provides 1/4 wavelength retardation, and
The Sensitive Tint plate provides one wavelength retardation
The Olympus Java tutorial seems singularly unhelpful:
Ref. https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/ ... drotation/Insertion of a first-order retardation plate or compensator between the specimen and the analyzer changes the optical path difference of light passing through the specimen. Compensator plates providing a retardation of one entire wavelength (550 nanometers) are termed sensitive tint or first-order red plates. These quartz plates can be utilized to determine the sign of birefringence exhibited by the specimen.
.
... because it doesn’t explain how !!
I am obviously missing some small snippet of assumed knowledge; so could someone kindly advise me ?
I can produce pretty colours, but I really want to learn how to use this microscope.
Thanks
MichaelG.