Patent ID: 7812943

Claim:
A method of imaging diffracted light using an optical microscope in a Kohler illuminated system, comprising the steps of; a) providing at least one target, an illumination source for illuminating the at least one target, and an aperture disposed at a back focal plane between the at least one target and the illumination source, wherein the illumination source is imaged in the back focal plane; b) scanning the aperture in the back focal plane to vary the angle of illumination of the at least one target; c) directing light from the illumination source onto the at least one target so as to cause the target to diffract the light, the light directed onto the at least one target approximating plane waves; d) collecting at an imaging device, via an objective lens, the diffracted light for each of the varied angles of illumination; e) determining structural features of the at least one target from the collected diffracted light by correlating the average intensity of the collected diffracted light for each of the varied angles of illumination to produce an image that corresponds to structural features of the at least one target.