Photonic Spin-Hall Differential Microscopy

The visualization of objects such as transparent living cells and tissues plays an important role in biological research. However, weak scattering and absorption of ``phase objects'' make it challenging to obtain high-contrast images, and phase-contrast techniques are needed. This study proposes differential microscopy based on the photonic spin Hall effect at a simple glass interface. The combination of the photonic spin Hall effect and a bright-field microscope can perform spatial differentiation on the phase distribution, which leads to a low-cost differential interference contrast (DIC) system.