Microscopes - Polarization microscope

A polarization microscope is a special light microscope that generates and analyzes linearly polarized light with polarizers. Thus, birefringence in optically anisotropic minerals is clearly visible, but optical activities can also be determined… It is used by petrographers for crystal optical analysis (the microscopic study) of rocks, their minerals and microstructure. Transparent minerals of the rocks are studied in thin sections (about 0.02 mm) or as powder. Among the optical properties that can be determined in the mineral under examination, in addition to the refractive index or principal refractive indices, is birefringence, which is determined in transmitted light using the polarizing microscope. Important accessories are the universal rotary stage with axis (among others 4-axis) normal to the cut, auxiliary, vertical and horizontal axis. With this method, even the smallest crystal grains of a few hundredths of a millimeter, which occur in thin sections as transparent inclusions, can be precisely examined and, if necessary, determined.