Abstract

For examination of cellular details within the cornea and in the cochlea, the microscope must strongly reject stray light reflected or scattered from out-of-focus planes. In the scanning-slit microscope this is accomplished by separating the illuminating and imaging light paths except in the vicinity of the object plane. This produces a theoretically higher rejection ratio than is possible with conventional pinhole confocal microscopes, in which the falloff follows the inverse-square law. Special dipping cones have been designed to permit examination at 0.53 N.A. with working distances as great as 6 mm, immersed. In the search phase of an experiment, the optical-section depth can be made large by means of the variable-width slits. Resolution is not sacrificed because image detail is preserved across the width of the slit. After the region of interest is located, the optical section can be reduced to the optimum value for best image contrast. The high efficiency of the slit system permits the use of a conventional white-light source.

© 1990 Optical Society of America