The present report presents a method for the correlation of qualitative and quantitative BSE SEM imaging with confocal scanning light microscopy (CSLM) imaging modes applied to bone samples embedded in PMMA. The SEM has a proper digital scan generator: we leave the BSE image unchanged, and match the CSLM image to it, because the CSLM scan mechanism is not digital, though the signal is digitised. Our overlapping program uses a linear transformation matrix which projects one system to the other, calculated by finding three corresponding points in BSE and CSLM pictures.BSE images are empty where cells and osteoid are present. Fluorescence mode CSLM fills in these gaps. The combination images enhance our understanding of what is going on -and re-establish the need for good cellular preservation.

The paper deals with quantitative phase imaging of two-height-level surface reliefs. The imaging is considered to be a linear system and, consequently, the Fourier transform of the image is the product of the Fourier transform of a 2D function characterizing the surface and a specific 2D coherent transfer function. The Fourier transform of functions specifying periodic surface reliefs is factorized into two functions similar to lattice and structure amplitudes in crystal structure analysis. The approach to the imaging process described in the paper enables us to examine the dependence of the phase image on the surface geometry. Theoretical results are verified experimentally by means of a digital holographic microscope.

The application of digital holographic microscope (DHM) imaging and inspection of fine surface structures, dimensions of which are in the range from units of nanometers up to units of micrometers in optical axis direction, is described in this paper. Accurate results of surface structures measurement, in the case the surface profile height is of three orders range, is achieved by simultaneous processing of optically sectioned image intensity and image phase. Surface profile height is roughly specified by the image intensity and the precise height information is acquired from the image phase. Full width at half maximum of the axial intensity response is adjusted properly for particular specimen by the modification of the spectral function of illumination and by resizing of the incoherent illumination source. It means the intervention into spatial and temporal coherence of the illumination. The content of this paper is the description of imaging characteristics of the DHM for individual illumination modes together with experimental results.

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Low-coherence interference microscopy (LCIM) is a powerful imaging high-accuracy technique for surface inspection and profiling 1 . The principle of this technique is based on the interference of two waves with the use of incoherent light, usually of halogen lamp or superluminescent diode. One of its principal advantages is that both the image intensity and the image phase may be extracted from the output signal. The image phase may be converted subsequently into the surface height data. The image intensity is depth discriminated in a similar way as in the confocal microscopy. A limited lateral resolving power of the microscope significantly influences the accuracy of profiling with LCIM. This factor affects not only the image intensity of the reconstructed signal, but also behaviour of the image phase. It could result in an error in surface-height data measurement, especially if the structure contains details, the size of which is comparable with the resolving power of the microscope. This paper deals with the deviation of measurement of onedimensional and two-dimensional periodic surface structures in relation to the numerical aperture of the objective lens and to the spectral composition of the illumination. The calculations are based on the polychromatic coherent transfer function, which describes the influence of temporal and spatial coherence of illumination on the imaging characteristics of the LCIM. Experiments were done with the reflected-light low-coherence holographic microscope 2 .