Abstract

The imaging properties of a fluorescent scanning optical microscope (SOM) with a slit detector are investigated by calculating the 3-D optical transfer function (3-D OTF). The bandwidth of the 3-D OTF in the lateral direction varies with the slit direction. The widest bandwidth corresponds to the confocal SOM with an extremely small pinhole detector. The widest longitudinal bandwidth also corresponds to the longitudinal one for the confocal SOM. The contrast for the microscope with the slit is lower than that for the confocal SOM. When the slit width increases, the imaging properties approach those of the conventional optical microscope.

© 1990 Optical Society of America

Calculation of three-dimensional optical transfer function for a confocal scanning fluorescent microscope

Shigeharu Kimura and Chusuke Munakata
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 6(7) 1015-1019 (1989)

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)

Three-dimensional transfer-function analysis of the tomographic capability of a confocal fluorescence microscope

Osamu Nakamura and Satoshi Kawata
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 7(3) 522-526 (1990)

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)

Three-dimensional optical transfer function in a fiber-optical confocal fluorescence microscope using annular lenses

Min Gu and C. J. R. Sheppard
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 9(11) 1991-1999 (1992)