Imaging of optically active biological structures by use of circularly polarized light.

If an optically active (chiral) sample is placed in a microscope and illuminated with circularly polarized light, an image can be formed that is related to the circular dichroism of each feature of the sample. A theoretical investigation has been done for the circular differential image obtained by subtracting the images formed under right- and left-circularly polarized light. Two types of differential images are possible: (i) dark-field images formed from light reflected or scattered by the sample and (ii) bright-field images formed from light transmitted through the sample. The sign and magnitude of each feature in a circular differential image strongly depend on the structure of the sample. The dark-field circular differential images are most sensitive to large features with dimensions similar to the wavelength of illumination whereas the bright-field images are most sensitive to the short-range molecular order. Applications of circular differential imaging may include clinical fingerprinting of normal and transformed cells and structural analysis of individual cellular components.