Visualization of 3-D phase structure in confocal and conventional microscopy

A reflection differential interference contrast (DIC) system has been investigated as a means for imaging phase information in confocal microscopy. Interestingly, this method has an advantage over the split-detector method for differential phase contrast (and its corresponding confocal derivative) in that the background signal decays as the specimen surface is displaced away from the focal plane. Therefore, a series of DIC images from successive planes of focus can be used to produce easily visualized three-dimensional reconstructions.