Introduction to Optical Microscopy

F. Müller (ICS)
(building 15.1, room 249)

Optical microscopy is a key method for cell biology, biophysics and soft matter physics. The advent of reliable high-sensitivity electronic image recording combined with digital image processing has turned light microscopy into a highly quantitative method. Moreover, modern light microscopy performs reliably very close to the physical limits and offers a surprising variety of different contrast generation mechanisms. However, to exploit the considerable potential of modern light microscopy, the user has to understand the underlying optical principles. This lecture series aims at teaching this with a minimum of formalism. The lecture series comprises four topics: ray optical principles, wave optical principles, optical contrast techniques, confocal microscopy, and modern microscopy techniques.

A lab course will accompany the lectures, details will be discussed in the last lecture.

Wednesday, May 4, 1:00-2:30
Wednesday, May 11, 1:00-2:30
Wednesday, June 1, 1:00-2:30
Wednesday, June 15, 1:00-2:30 (room change: building 05.2, room 3012)
Wednesday, July 20, 1:00-2:30