Do you want to see more surface detail?

            Looking for 3-D information?

                  Measurements of sub-micron artifacts?

In illumination design, a critical measure of efficiency is the quality of a reflector surface. To understand a reflecting material, you have to look at its surface in great detail. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, but in 99 percent of the jobs, the customer wants more light, and can’t tolerate losses from scatter or surface pattern diffraction.

To look at surfaces, we acquired a Zeiss Nomarski microscope, the ideal tool for understanding highly reflective surfaces. But we can use it on almost anything else that calls for high magnification. Forensic mysteries can sometimes be solved by looking at fine surface detail, manufacturing mysteries too.

Metallic sputtered coating Small metal spheres reflect light in a pattern determined by their diameters.

Damage from polishing Silicon edges broke during an assembly step. Contour of surface is shown by color variations.

Expanded cardiac stent Very small features on the stent surface can damage artery walls during insertion and expansion.

To the right, Ken Moses, a well-known forensic specialist, looks through the Nomarski microscope for a tiny shred of clear glass embedded in white plastic. Our photograph determined the outcome of a criminal trial. Moses has appeared several times as the featured crime scene expert on The New Detectives.