3D-printed microscope with illumination for undergraduate wave optics laboratory

We present an educational tool, a microscope with a video camera, that can be fabricated either from a standard microscope or assembled from inexpensive, commercially available components (objectives, beam splitters, LEDs, linear stages) and 3D-printed elements. Usage of interference filters in combination with white light-emitting diode (LED) illumination enables the quantitative study of optical phenomena such as refraction, interference (e.g., Newton’s rings), Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction. Thus, we propose an instrument that can be used to illustrate the theoretical foundations of an undergraduate optics course and beyond.