What is the purpose of the objective lens in a lightmicroscope

Stage Clips are used when there is no mechanical stage. The viewer is required to move the slide manually to view different sections of the specimen.

Photography or image pickup with a video camera has been common in microscopy and thus a clear, sharp image over the entire field of view is increasingly required. Consequently, Plan objective lenses corrected satisfactorily for field curvature aberration are being used as the mainstream. To correct for field curvature aberration, optical design is performed so that Petzval sum becomes 0. However, this aberration correction is more difficult especially for higher-magnification objectives. (This correction is difficult to be compatible with other aberration corrections) An objective lens in which such correction is made features in general powerful concave optical components in the front-end lens group and powerful concave ones in the back-end group.

Coarse and Fine Focus knobs are used to focus the microscope. Increasingly, they are coaxial knobs - that is to say they are built on the same axis with the fine focus knob on the outside. Coaxial focus knobs are more convenient since the viewer does not have to grope for a different knob.

A high power or compound microscope achieves higher levels of magnification than a stereo or low power microscope. It is used to view smaller specimens such as cell structures which cannot be seen at lower levels of magnification. Essentially, a compound microscope consists of structural and optical components. However, within these two basic systems, there are some essential components that every microscopist should know and understand. These key microscope parts are illustrated and explained below.

Confocal microscopy

Objective Lenses are the primary optical lenses on a microscope. They range from 4x-100x and typically, include, three, four or five on lens on most microscopes. Objectives can be forward or rear-facing.

Eyepiece Tube holds the eyepieces in place above the objective lens. Binocular microscope heads typically incorporate a diopter adjustment ring that allows for the possible inconsistencies of our eyesight in one or both eyes. The monocular (single eye usage) microscope does not need a diopter. Binocular microscopes also swivel (Interpupillary Adjustment) to allow for different distances between the eyes of different individuals.

Nosepiece houses the objectives. The objectives are exposed and are mounted on a rotating turret so that different objectives can be conveniently selected. Standard objectives include 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x although different power objectives are available.

What does the objective lens do on amicroscope

An optical microscope is used with multiple objectives attached to a part called revolving nosepiece. Commonly, multiple combined objectives with a different magnification are attached to this revolving nosepiece so as to smoothly change magnification from low to high only by revolving the nosepiece. Consequently, a common combination lineup is comprised from among objectives of low magnification (5x, 10x), intermediate magnification (20x, 50x), and high magnification (100x). To obtain a high resolving power particularly at high magnification among these objectives, an immersion objective for observation with a dedicated liquid with a high refractive index such as immersion oil or water charged between the lens end and a specimen is available. Ultra low magnification (1.25x, 2.5x) and ultra high magnification (150x) objectives are also available for the special use.

Condenser is used to collect and focus the light from the illuminator on to the specimen. It is located under the stage often in conjunction with an iris diaphragm.

An objective lens is the most important optical unit that determines the basic performance/function of an optical microscope To provide an optical performance/function optimal for various needs and applications (i.e. the most important performance/function for an optical microscope), a wide variety of objective lenses are available according to the purpose.

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Axial chromatic aberration correction is divided into three levels of achromat, semiapochromat (fluorite), and apochromat according to the degree of correction. The objective lineup is divided into the popular class to high class with a gradual difference in price. An objective lens for which axial chromatic aberration correction for two colors of C ray (red: 656,3nm) and F ray (blue: 486.1nm) has been made is known as Achromat or achromatic objective. In the case of Achromat, a ray except for the above two colors (generally violet g-ray: 435.8nm) comes into focus on a plane away from the focal plane. This g ray is called a secondary spectrum. An objective lens for which chromatic aberration up to this secondary spectrum has satisfactorily been corrected is known as Apochromat or apochromatic objective. In other words, Apochromat is an objective for which the axial chromatic aberration of three colors (C, F, and g rays) has been corrected. The following figure shows the difference in chromatic aberration correction between Achromat and Apochromat by using the wavefront aberration. This figure proves that Apochromat is corrected for chromatic aberration in wider wavelength range than Achromat is.

Leica objective

Lumenmicroscope

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Stage is where the specimen to be viewed is placed. A mechanical stage is used when working at higher magnifications where delicate movements of the specimen slide are required.

Zeiss objective

Eyepiece or Ocular is what you look through at the top of the microscope. Typically, standard eyepieces have a magnifying power of 10x. Optional eyepieces of varying powers are available, typically from 5x-30x.

Iris Diaphragm controls the amount of light reaching the specimen. It is located above the condenser and below the stage. Most high quality microscopes include an Abbe condenser with an iris diaphragm. Combined, they control both the focus and quantity of light applied to the specimen.

In the optical design of microscope objectives, commonly the larger is an N.A. and the higher is a magnification, the more difficult to correct the axial chromatic aberration of a secondary spectrum. In addition to axis chromatic aberration, various aberrations and sine condition must be sufficiently corrected and therefore the correction of the secondary spectrum is far more difficult to be implemented. As the result, a higher-magnification apochromatic objective requires more pieces of lenses for aberration correction. Some objectives consist of more than 15 pieces of lenses. To correct the secondary spectrum satisfactorily, it is effective to use "anomalous dispersion glass" with less chromatic dispersion up to the secondary spectrum for the powerful convex lens among constituting lenses. The typical material of this anomalous dispersion glass is fluorite (CaF2) and has been adopted for apochromatic objectives since a long time ago, irrespective of imperfection in workability. Recently, optical glass with a property very close to the anomalous dispersion of fluorite has been developed and is being used as the mainstream in place of fluorite.

Opticalmicroscope

The purposes of optical microscopes are broadly classified into two; "biological-use" and "industrial-use". Using this classification method, objective lenses are classified into "biological-use" objectives and "industrial-use" objectives. A common specimen in a biological use is fixed in place on the slide glass, sealing it with the cover glass from top. Since a biological-use objective lens is used for observation through this cover glass, optical design is performed in consideration of the cover glass thickness (commonly 0.17mm). Meanwhile, in an industrial use a specimen such as a metallography specimen, semiconductor wafer, and an electronic component is usually observed with nothing covered on it. An industrial-use objective lens is optically designed so as to be optimal for observation without any cover glass between the lens end and a specimen.

Image

Objective lensmicroscope

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Objective lenses are roughly classified basically according to the intended purpose, microscopy method, magnification, and performance (aberration correction). Classification according to the concept of aberration correction among those items is a characteristic way of classification of microscope objectives.

A variety of microscopy methods have been developed for optical microscopes according to intended purposes. The dedicated objective lenses to each microscopy method have been developed and are classified according to such a method. For example, "reflected darkfield objective (a circular-zone light path is applied to the periphery of an inner lens)", "Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) objective (the combination of optical properties with a DIC( Nomarski)prism is optimized by reducing lens distortions)", "fluorescence objective (the transmittance in the near-ultraviolet region is improved)", "polarization objective (lens distortions are drastically reduced)", and "phase difference objective (a phase plate is built in) are available.

Meanwhile, an objective lens for which the degree of chromatic aberration correction to the secondary spectrum (g ray) is set to medium between Achromat and Apochromat is known as Semiapochromat (or Flulorite).

Illuminator is the light source for a microscope, typically located in the base of the microscope. Most light microscopes use low voltage, halogen bulbs with continuous variable lighting control located within the base.