Olympus Polarizers/Analyzers

Everything relating to microscopy hardware: Objectives, eyepieces, lamps and more.
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microb
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Olympus Polarizers/Analyzers

#1 Post by microb » Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:02 am

For the BX series U-PO3 polarizer, the filter is in the plane of the slide and just a linear polarizer. The U-AN slider has the filter at a 5 degree angle, a linear polarizer on the side of the specimen, and a circular polarizer layer on the side of the camera.

The 5 degree is maybe to prevent reflections (?). But what is the advantage of the circular polarizer? Does adding that just make it more likely the camera will get the full level of light regardless what filter it may have?

Scarodactyl
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Re: Olympus Polarizers/Analyzers

#2 Post by Scarodactyl » Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:08 am

Plane polarized light interacts somewhat with flat reflective surfaces like mirrors or prisms, so it can theoretically cause issues when passing through some microscope heads, cameras or other accessories. It's the same reason circular polarizers are used on cameras nowadays--the second layer is a 'depolarizer' which removes the potentially problematic features of the linear polarizer once it's done what you want. It may not cause any issues depending on your setup.

microb
Posts: 729
Joined: Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:39 am

Re: Olympus Polarizers/Analyzers

#3 Post by microb » Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:57 pm

Scarodactyl wrote:
Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:08 am
Plane polarized light interacts somewhat with flat reflective surfaces like mirrors or prisms, so it can theoretically cause issues when passing through some microscope heads, cameras or other accessories. It's the same reason circular polarizers are used on cameras nowadays--the second layer is a 'depolarizer' which removes the potentially problematic features of the linear polarizer once it's done what you want. It may not cause any issues depending on your setup.
Thanks. I like that explanation for the circular filter.

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