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Science Lab

Science Lab

Science Lab

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments. Explore interactive tutorials and application notes, discover the basics of microscopy as well as high-end technologies – become part of the Science Lab community and share your expertise!
Images of the same area of a processed wafer taken with standard (left) and oblique (right) brightfield illumination using a Leica compound microscope. The defect on the wafer surface is clearly more visible with oblique illumination.

Rapid Semiconductor Inspection with Microscope Contrast Methods

Semiconductor inspection for QC of materials like wafers can be challenging. Microscope solutions that offer several contrast methods enable fast and reliable defect detection and efficient workflows.
Neurons imaged with DIC contrast.

Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy

This article demonstrates how differential interference contrast (DIC) can be actually better than brightfield illumination when using microscopy to image unstained biological specimens.
Mouse lung sections

Studying Pulmonary Fibrosis

The results shown in this article demonstrate that fibrotic and non-fibrotic regions of collagen present in mouse lung tissue can be distinguished better with polarized light compared to brightfield.…

Metallography – an Introduction

This article gives an overview of metallography and metallic alloy characterization. Different microscopy techniques are used to study the alloy microstructure, i.e., microscale structure of grains,…

Macroscale to Nanoscale Pore Analysis of Shale and Carbonate Rocks

Physical porosity in rocks, like shale and carbonate, has a large effect on the their storage capacity. The pore geometries also affect their permeability. Imaging the visible pore space provides…
Basalt imaged with crossed polarizers

Digital Microscopy in Earth Science

Classical polarized light (compound) microscopes can only be used for prepared samples, because the working distance they offer is insufficient for whole samples. This means that thicker and bigger…
Tartaric acids, polarization

Polarization Contrast

Polarization microscopy is routinely applied in material sciences and geology to identify minerals on the basis of characteristic refraction properties and colors. In biology, polarization microscopy…

Quality as Clear as Glass - Polarizing Microscopy in Glass Production

An exquisite beverage deserves a high-quality glass. Even the ancient Romans made artistically crafted drinking glasses. In the Middle Ages, Venetian glassmakers were famous for the purity of their…
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