Dark Phase vs. Bright Phase

[Psi Wavefunction]

I recently learned there are different types of phase, namely dark/positive vs. bright/negative. After reading around, seems like what we typically know as simply "phase" is dark phase, but I was curious if anyone had some more examples of the difference between the two types? I found a diatom example here but glassy refractile things tend to confuse me... ;-)

This surfaced when a [molecular biology/bioinformatics] lab obtained a darkfield condenser because they thought it was for 'dark phase' and the rep apparently was useless.

Thanks!

[rjlittlefield]

Was http://www.microscopyu.com/tutorials/ja ... index.html among the things you've read?

This and many other discussions are linked at http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/phasecontrast/ .

--Rik