Jones phase microscopy of transparent and anisotropic samples

We developed an interferometric microscopy technique, referred to as Jones phase microscopy, capable of extracting the spatially resolved Jones polarization matrix associated with transparent and anisotropic samples. This is a generalization of quantitative phase imaging, which is recovered from one diagonal element of the measured matrix. The principle of the technique is demonstrated with measurements of a liquid crystal spatial light modulator and the potential for live cell imaging with experiments on live neurons in culture.