Confocal microscopy

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Confocal microscopy is an imaging technique used to increase micrograph contrast and/or to reconstruct three-dimensional images by using a spatial pinhole to eliminate out-of-focus light or flare in specimens that are thicker than the focal plane. This technique has been gaining popularity in the scientific and industrial communities. Typical applications include life sciences and semiconductor inspection.

[edit] Basic concept

The principle of confocal imaging was patented by Marvin Minsky in 1961. In a conventional (i.e., wide-field) fluorescence microscope, the entire specimen is flooded in light from a light source. Due to the conservation of light intensity transportation, all parts of specimen throughout the optical path will be excited and the fluoresence detected by a photodetector or a camera. In contrast, a confocal microscope uses point illumination and a pinhole in an optically conjugate plane in front of the detector to eliminate out-of-focus information. Only the light within the focal plane can be detected, so the image quality is much better than that of wide-field images. The disadvantage is that, as this setup detects information from only one point on the specimen, one can only detect the information needed to make a 2D or 3D image by scanning the excited spot over a regular raster in the specimen. The thickness of the focal plane is defined mostly by the square of the numerical aperture of the objective lens, and also by the optical properties of the specimen and the ambient index of refraction.

[edit] Category

Three types of confocal microscopes are commercially available: Confocal laser scanning microscopes, spinning-disk (Nipkow disk) confocal microscopes and Programmable Array Microscopes (PAM). Generally speaking, confocal laser scanning microscopy yields better image quality but the imaging frame rate is very slow (less than 3 frames/second); spinning-disk confocal microscopes can achieve video rate imaging---desired for dynamic observations.