Dichroscope

A dichroscope is a pocket-sized optical instrument used in gemmology to detect pleochroism—the phenomenon where a doubly-refractive gemstone can display different colours when viewed from different angles. It assists gemmologists to identify natural gems, spot synthetics, and distinguish between look-alike stones.

The dichroscope splits the light emitted from a gemstone into two separate, plane-polarized rays. When you look through the eyepiece, you see two small squares positioned side-by-side. By comparing the colours of these two squares, you can quickly assess any pleochoism present, and use this to help identify a stone.

(*Whilst many sources claim you can use a dichroscope to separate doubly and singly refractive stones, this is not always true...but this is a much longer explanation. If you want to learn why, we can teach you in our courses 😉!)