Stages for dynamic microscopy

Spencer, Fundamentals in Light Microscopy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982). 

Hartley, Hartley s Microscopy (Senecio Publishing, Charlbury, 1981). 

Bradbury, An Introduction to the Optical Microscope (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984). 

Rochow and E. G. Rochow, An Introduction to Microscopy by Means of Light, Electrons, X-rays, or Ultrasound (Plenum, New York, 1978). 

Telle and G. Petzow, in Materials Science and Technology, Vol. 2A, edited by E. Lifshin (VCH Publishers, Weinheim, 1993). 

A major application of dynamic hot stage microscopy is the study of polymer structure, as a function of temperature, in the optical microscope [12, 111]. Thermal analysis in the optical microscope is complementary to thermal analysis by such methods as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and differential thermal analysis (Section 6.4.2). It is now possible to observe the sample in the OM and simultaneously obtain the DSC trace. 

One possible result from such a thermo-optical experiment is the microstructure of the specimen as a function of temperature and time. Direct observation of the structural changes of a polymer as a function of temperature can determine the nature of phase changes and thermal decomposition. It also measures the transformation temperatures. Another possible result is a measurement of the light transmittance in crossed polarizers as a function of temperature and time. As an ordered polymer is heated, its birefringence changes to zero for an isotropic melt. The light transmitted in crossed polarizers 

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