Leaf cuticle with coal dust
Conventional brightfield image
A wax cuticle taken from a fossilised leaf. The sample is obscured
by coal dust which cannot be removed without destroying the sample.
QPI phase image
The QPI phase image is able to remove the effects of the coal dust
because, whilst it scatters the intensity significantly, it does not affect the phase.
QPI phase image (false colour)
Here the phase image has been coloured with a false colour
palette to improve the contrast.
Sample courtesy Eroia Barone-Nugent, School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Australia.