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LSM 510
INTRODUCTION TO LASER SCANNING MICROSCOPY
LSM 510 META
Principle of Laser Scanning Microscopy
Carl Zeiss
B 45-0008 e 10/02
3-3
3
INTRODUCTION TO LASER SCANNING MICROSCOPY
3.1
Principle of Laser Scanning Microscopy
To yield information on their inner structure by conventional transmitted-light microscopy, specimens
have to be very thin and translucent; otherwise image definition will be poor. In many cases it is a
problem to satisfy these requirements.
The essential considerations have led to trailblazing changes in conventional microscopy and supplied a
successful solution to the above problem.
•
Unlike the practice of even illumination in conventional microscopy, the LSM technique projects the
light of a point light source (a laser) through a high-NA objective onto a certain object plane of
interest as a nearly diffraction-limited focus. However, if not for another "trick", the stray light
produced outside the object plane, or the fluorescence of fluorescent specimens, would disturb the
in-focus image of object point of interest, resulting in a blurred image of poor contrast. The problem
therefore is how to capture only the light coming immediately from the object point in focus, while
obstructing the light coming from out-of-focus areas of the specimen.
•
The light reflected, or the fluorescence light
produced, at the focus of the high-NA objective
is projected onto a variable pinhole diaphragm
by the same objective and a tube lens. The
focus inside the specimen and the pinhole are
situated at optically conjugate points (
confocal
imaging
)
.
The decisive advantage of this
arrangement is the fact that essentially no other
light than that coming from the object plane of
interest can pass the narrow pinhole and be
registered by a detector. Unwanted light
coming from other specimen areas is focused
outside the pinhole, which passes only a small
fraction of it. The smaller the pinhole, the less
stray light or fluorescence from out-of-focus
areas will get on the detector. The image point
thus generated is largely free from blur caused
by unwanted light.
Fig 3-1
Principle of confocal imaging
Summary of Contents for LSM 510 META
Page 1: ...LSM 510 and LSM 510 META Laser Scanning Microscopes Operating Manual Release 3 2...
Page 8: ...INTRODUCTION LSM 510 Carl Zeiss LSM 510 META VIII B 45 0008 e 10 02...
Page 10: ...NOTES ON DEVICE SAFETY LSM 510 Carl Zeiss Contents LSM 510 META 1 2 B 45 0008 e 10 02...
Page 20: ...NOTES ON DEVICE SAFETY LSM 510 Carl Zeiss LSM 510 META 1 12 B 45 0008 e 10 02...
Page 22: ...LSM 510 SETUP REQUIREMENTS LSM 510 Carl Zeiss Contents LSM 510 META 2 2 B 45 0008 e 10 02...
Page 52: ...QUICKSTART LSM 510 Carl Zeiss Contents LSM 510 META 4 2 B 45 0008 e 10 02...