Abstract
A comparative microscopic study of chrysotile fibers was conducted, using 3 sequential optical systems: plane polarized light (PL), phase contrast (PC), and Nomarski differential interference contrast (NDIC) for complementary image analyses. The introduction of NDIC for qualitative and quantitative analyses of particulate matter >5 μm resolves the problem of diffraction halos encountered in PC microscopy. High optical contrast, the instrumental characteristic of NDIC, is particularly useful for the detection of chrysotile fibers at a magnification of 500 ×.