Abstract

The effect of axial misalignment of the detector pinhole in confocal microscopes is investigated. We find that the use of a flat mirror to determine the axial position of the pinhole in a reflection microscope does not necessarily give the correct location. However, for a fluorescent microscope there is no uncertainty in determining the axial position of the pinhole by maximizing the fluorescence signal from a thin fluorescent film.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

Dependence of 3-D optical transfer functions on the pinhole radius in a fluorescent confocal optical microscope

Shigeharu Kimura and Chusuke Munakata
Appl. Opt. 29(20) 3007-3011 (1990)

Effect of detector displacement in confocal imaging systems

Tony Wilson and A. R. Carlini
Appl. Opt. 27(18) 3791-3799 (1988)

Optimization of axial resolution in a confocal microscope with D-shaped apertures

Wei Gong, Ke Si, and Colin J. R. Sheppard
Appl. Opt. 48(20) 3998-4002 (2009)

Effect of a finite-size pinhole on noise performance in single-, two-, and three-photon confocal fluorescence microscopy

Régis Gauderon and Colin J. R. Sheppard
Appl. Opt. 38(16) 3562-3565 (1999)

Dependence of two- and three-dimensional optical transfer functions on pinhole radius in a coherent confocal microscope

Valter Drazic
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 9(5) 725-731 (1992)