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!

Rate the Quality of Your Steel: Free Webinar and Report

This webinar and report describe optimal microscopy solutions for rating steel quality in terms of non-metallic inclusions and reviews the various international and regional standards concerning…

Polarizing Microscope Image Gallery

Polarized light microscopy (also known as polarizing microscopy) is an important method used in different fields, including research and quality assurance. It goes beyond just producing images at high…

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,…

Brief Introduction to Surface Metrology

This report briefly discusses several important metrology techniques and standard definitions commonly used to assess the topography of surfaces, also known as surface texture or surface finish. With…

How To Create EDOF (Extended Depth of Focus) Images

Watch this video to see how you can rapidly record sharp optical microscope images of samples with a large height variation. This is done with the optional Extended Depth of Focus (EDOF) function of…

See the Structure with Microscopy - Know the Composition with Laser Spectroscopy

The advantages of a 2-in-1 materials analysis solution combining optical microscopy and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for simultaneous visual and chemical inspection are described in…

What You Always Wanted to Know About Digital Microscopy, but Never Got Around to Asking

Digital microscopy is one of the buzz words in microscopy – and there are a couple of facts that are useful to know. Georg Schlaffer, Product Manager with Leica Microsystems, has often been asked…

Metallography with Color and Contrast

The examination of microstructure morphology plays a decisive role in materials science and failure analysis. There are many possibilities of visualizing the real structures of materials in the light…

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…