Polarimetric microscope web application for simulated and experimental retrieval of polarimetric properties of biological samples

Abstract

This paper reports a bright field polarimetric microscope's numerical simulation in a web application. In the main interface or layout of this software, the user can interact with the elements that compose a polarimetric microscope, such as the polarization-states generators and analyzers, the Jones matrices that make up the sample, the optical magnification of the imaging system, the numerical aperture of the instrument, and the wavelength of the illumination source. The web application includes two more layouts for experimental or synthetic data post-processing. The first one allows the computing of the dichroic response of a microscopic sample. The second layout allows computing the Stokes parameters of a light beam and its general, linear, and circular degree of polarization. The ease of use and its cross-platform portability establish our web application as a valuable tool for different teaching and research applications in the field of microscopy and polarimetry of biological samples.