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PolarEyes with enhanced digital imaging, a high throughput solution for locating and grading crystals

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Michael HallORCiD, Professor Mike ProbertORCiD

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Abstract

The long-range internal order or crystals allows most to exhibit a well-known and long-exploited phenomenon: birefringence. The simple assessment of the interaction of crystals with a polarised light source has guided the hand of many crystallographers through history in matters of crystal selection. Adapting the use of polarised light microscopy to a modern, small-molecule optimised, high-throughput workflow can allow for the more efficient screening of crystallisation space. In turn alleviating the analysis bottleneck previously encountered in parallel crystallisation techniques, such as encapsulated nanodroplet crystallisation (ENaCt). Presented herein are developments to an existing open-source imaging robot, including the novel integration of a commercial imaging device, and a new software suite for analysis. The open-source program PolarEyes is presented for the extraction of polarisation quantities from optical light micrographs. Included in PolarEyes is facility to perform normalisation against a background image, false-colour visualisation using the HSL colour model, and capabilities to perform analysis on multiple different incident polarisation states.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Smith TD, Longcake A, Hall MJ, Probert MR

Publication type: Article

Publication status: In Press

Journal: Journal of Applied Crystallography

Year: 2026

Acceptance date: 28/07/2026

ISSN (print): 0021-8898

ISSN (electronic): 1600-5767

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576726007727

DOI: 10.1107/S1600576726007727

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