Patent ID: 7046436

Claim:
An arrangement for polarization-optical interference contrast in a microscope comprising: a light source which images light onto an object by a condenser; an objective being provided through which light passing through the object is imaged in an objective exit pupil; said objective being followed by a first polarizer which linearly polarizes the light coming from the objective; a shearing interferometer being arranged after the first polarizer in the vicinity of the objective exit pupil; and a second polarizer being provided after the interferometer, wherein a Jamin-Lebedeff interferometer or a Smith type or Nomarski type Wollaston prism is provided as the shearing interferometer wherein a slit is arranged between the light source and the condenser and the width of the slit is adjustable and the width b of the slit satisfies the following condition: bB f < λ 4 where B is the shear size related to the object plane, f is the focal length of the condenser and λ is the light wavelength.