White-light interference microscopy: minimization of spurious diffraction effects by geometric phase-shifting
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Quantitative Optical Microscopy: Measurement of Cellular Biophysical Features with a Standard Optical Microscope
Published on: April 7, 2014
Maitreyee Roy1, Joanna Schmit, Parameswaran Hariharan
1School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. mroy@physics.usyd.edu.au
Abstract:
A common problem when profiling surfaces with steps or discontinuities using white-light (coherence-probe) interferometry is localized spikes (batwings) or spurious peaks due to diffraction effects. We show that errors due to these effects can be minimized by processing the irradiance data obtained with an achromatic phase-shifter operating on the geometric (Pancharatnam) phase to yield the values of the surface height.
Related Concept Videos
Phase Contrast and Differential Interference Contrast Microscopy
In-phase-contrast microscopes, interference between light directly passing through a cell and light refracted by cellular components is used to create high-contrast, high-resolution images without staining. It is the oldest and simplest type of microscope that creates an image by altering the wavelengths of light rays passing through the specimen. Altered wavelength paths are created using an annular stop in the condenser. The annular stop produces a hollow cone of...
Interference and Diffraction
Super-resolution Fluorescence Microscopy

