Abstract

The confocal scanning microscope achieves improved depth discrimination by the action of a small aperture in front of the detector. The confocal aperture rejects out- of-focus contributions and, in the case of fluorescence microscopy, results in a 3-D optical transfer function (OTF) that does not suffer from the missing-cone problem found in nonconfocal microscopes. Reducing the size of the aperture results in better depth discrimination, but it also reduces the amount of light reaching the detector and therefore reduces the image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

© 1989 Optical Society of America