Optical Crystallography

In this chapter we relate the interaction of light with minerals to the study of mineral crystallography. With the fundamentals of optics (covered in Chapter 16) we can now understand the use of the Polarizing Light Microscope for mineral identification.

Topics covered in Chapter 17 include:


The Polarizing Light Microscope (PLM)
Sample Types and Preparations
Birefringence, Retardation, and Orientation of N and n
Accessory Plates
Interference Figures (isogyres)
The Indicatrix Revisited
Dispersion
Indicatrix on "Stage"
Interference Figures in Practice
Orientational Dependence of Images
Other Optical Phenomena