"Phase contrast" refers to a way of enhancing the visibility of transparent objects under a microscope. It helps make these objects, which are more difficult to see, stand out by highlighting the differences in their density and thickness compared to their surroundings.
Full definition
Sandia's technique achieved
X-ray phase contrast imaging in a lab without a synchrotron, an expensive piece of equipment the size of a football field.
In this image, human induced pluripotent stem cell neurons are imaged
in phase contrast (gray pixels) and superimposed with predicted fluorescent labels (color pixels).
A spatially coherent beam from fs pulses of a tabletop extreme ultraviolet laser illuminates an object, the intensity of the scattered light is collected on a pixel array detector, and the data is computationally interpreted to provide quantitative amplitude and
phase contrast information about a surface or object.
i) Representative
phase contrast microscopic images at 40x magnification showing comparative size of spheres formed in siTRF2 silenced cells as compared to Scrambled.
Using a technique called
phase contrast video microscopy, Ubogu's team produced videos that show AIDP patient leukocytes as they migrated across the layer of endothelial cells that form the blood - nerve barrier in the laboratory.
At different times of culture, rings were photographed under clear field illumination by using an inverted microscope
with phase contrast Nikon Diaphot - TM (Nikon Corp., Tokyo, Japan).
This Ph + (
Phase Contrast +) feature avoids any meniscus effect and facilitates homogenous cell growth.
Most other groups
studying phase contrast X-ray imaging are looking into the technique for medical imaging, while Sandia is studying it for materials science applications.
PNNL physicist Erin Miller, Ph.D., talks about
how phased contrast X-ray imaging could be used for better explosives detection.
In addition, three Zeiss Axiovert 200 inverted compound microscopes are available for high
resolution phase contrast, differential interference contrast, Hoffmann modulation contrast, and widefield epifluorescence microscopy, as well as digitally enhanced real time and time lapse video microscopy and low light video microscopy.
High
speed phase contrast X-Ray imaging of dosing event in a pressurised Metered Dose Inhaler (left) and a Dry Powder Inhaler (right).
* Analyzed various air samples by
Phase Contrast Microscopy (PCM) to calculate the concentration of ambient fibers during client remediation projects.
These properties allow us to record the entire unsaturated diffraction pattern in scanning mode, and simultaneously capture bright field, dark field, and
phase contrast information, as well as analyze the full scattering distribution, opening the way for new multichannel imaging modes.
Human induced pluripotent stem cell neurons imaged
in phase contrast (gray pixels, left)-- currently processed manually with fluorescent labels (color pixels) to make them visible.
This work proves, once again, the extremely high efficiency of
Phase Contrast Imaging - now we just have to face the analysis of this huge volume of data».
Holographic,
phase contrast or differential interference contrast (DIC) miscroscopes have been implemented especially for making «visible,» otherwise «invisible,» transparent objects, opening a new pathway towards the study and characterization of relevant structures such as biological cells or protein layers.
Sandia National Laboratories researcher Amber Dagel holds a calibration sample to be loaded into the labs» X-ray
phase contrast imaging machine.
X-ray
phase contrast imaging clearly shows the differences between the thin layers of zest and pith and how those layers look compared to the thick pulp.
X-ray
phase contrast imaging could be used to inspect microfabrication packaging, integrated circuits or micro-electro-mechanical components and could be used to study ceramics, polymers, chemicals or explosives.
Sandia Labs» research began with a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project from 2014 - 2016 that demonstrated X-ray
phase contrast imaging could show details where one material meets another.
Dagel is principal investigator for the labs» work into using X-ray
phase contrast imaging to study low - density materials.
Different parts of your sample bend the light differently, and measuring that is what gives rise to
the phase contrast image.»
So Sandia borrowed and refined a technique being studied by the medical field, X-ray
phase contrast imaging, to look inside the softer side of things without taking them apart.
X-ray
phase contrast imaging measures not just the number of X-ray photons that get through the sample, as in conventional X-ray imaging, but also the phase of the X-rays after they pass through, offering a complete look at interfaces inside a structure.
The team operated the microscope, or TEM, in two different modes,
phase contrast and scanning.
A microscope and its parts, image formation, Köhler illumination, optical aberrations, types of lenses,
phase contrast, interference contrast, polarization, fluorescence microscopy, laser confocal microscopy, two - photon confocal microscopy, superresolution microscopy, study of dynamic processes in living cells, immunofluorescence.
IMAGE: This is C. difficile sporulation seen through
a phase contrast microscope at a magnification of 1000X.
«We trained the [deep learning] neural network by showing it two sets of matching images of the same cells: one unlabeled [such as the black and white «
phase contrast «microscope image shown in the illustration] and one with fluorescent labels [such as the three colored images shown above],» explained Eric Christiansen, a software engineer at Google Accelerated Science and the study's first author.
I have extensive experience in microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, protein interaction and purification, western blotting, immuno - blotting, microscopy [which includes immunofluorescence microscopy (single label and double label), epi - fluorescence,
phase contrast, single molecule fluorescence microscopy, PALM FRAP].
Inverted microscopes are used to image lives cells in culture (flasks, dishes, or multi-well plates) using transmitted light,
phase contrast, DIC, or fluorescence modes.
Phase contrast X-ray video of the dose release event from each inhaler showed the propellant mixture behaviour inside the canister and actuator.
The microscope and its components, image formation, microscopy in both transmitted and fluorescent light, Kohler illumination, optical aberrations, objective lens types,
phase contrast, interference contrast, polarization, fluorescence microscopy, laser confocal microscopy, two - photon confocal microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, study of dynamic processes in living cells, immunofluorescence.
The ESRF beamlines have sufficient intensity to achieve the required temporal resolution and
the phase contrast X-ray imaging technique gives excellent contrast for the low atomic number polymer / propellant / drug materials involved.