LASER CONFOCAL SCANNING MICROSCOPE AND METHODS OF IMPROVING IMAGE QUALITY IN SUCH MICROSCOPE

摘要

According to a first embodiment the invention provides for increasing the throughput and reducing the striping due to imperfections in the microlens and/or confocal aperture arrays of a Laser Confocal Scanning Microscope by increasing the number of repeat patterns in the microlens and confocal aperture arrays to more than one, and incorporating an intensity modulation function that ensures constant integrated image intensities at the image detector independent of the instantaneous speed of scanning. According to a second embodiment the invention provides for reducing the striping in a Laser Confocal Scanning Microscope by introducing a second galvanometer mirror such that the emitted laser light beam is descanned at the image (sample) plane. According to embodiments three to five, striping in a Laser Confocal Scanning Microscope is also reduced by destroying coherency in the emitted light beam by insertion of a small angle diffuser, by flattening the Gaussian intensity distribution of the emitted laser light beam and changing the characteristics of the beam expander. According to embodiment six the invention provides for changing the degree of confocality of a Laser Confocal Scanning Microscope by inserting a mechanism that offers a range of selectable confocal aperture sizes.