High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Holographic interference microscopy (HIM) is holographic interferometry applied for microscopy for visualization of phase micro-objects. Phase micro-objects are invisible because they do not change intensity of light, they insert only invisible phase shifts. The holographic interference microscopy distinguishes itself from other microscopy methods by using a hologram and the interference for converting invisible phase shifts into intensity changes. The images appear as the result of the interference of two object waves passed the same path through the microscope optical system but in different points of time: the reconstructed from the hologram “empty” object wave, and the object wave disturbed by the phase micro-objects under study. The hologram of the "empty" object wave is recorded using a reference beam, and it is used as an optical element of the holographic interference microscope.