Mike Gibson

To see a world in a grain of sand...

Dispersion Staining

Dispersion staining is an optical technique that results in a colored image of a colorless object. This is an optical staining technique and requires no stains or dyes to produce a color effect. There are five different microscope configurations used in the broader technique of dispersion staining. They include brightfield Becke line, oblique, darkfield, phase contrast, and objective stop dispersion staining.

Example

This is the image of a glass sphere mounting in a medium that matches its refractive index at a wavelength of 589 nanometers viewed with positive phase contrast.