Effect of half-stop lateral misalignment on imaging of dark-field and stereoscopic confocal microscopes

There are several ways to realize dark-field imaging in confocal microscopy. In a recent paper [J. Microsc. 181 260-268 (1996)] we suggested a simple modification of a commercial confocal microscope to incorporate dark-field imaging. This modification involved an aperture stop covering half of the e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied optics (2004) 1996-12, Vol.35 (34), p.6732-6735
Main Authors: Török, P, Laczik, Z, Sheppard, C J
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:There are several ways to realize dark-field imaging in confocal microscopy. In a recent paper [J. Microsc. 181 260-268 (1996)] we suggested a simple modification of a commercial confocal microscope to incorporate dark-field imaging. This modification involved an aperture stop covering half of the entrance pupil of the objective lens. Now we investigate the lateral misalignment of the aperture stop for dark-field and stereoscopic confocal microscopes. We show the effect of lateral alignment of the half-stop on the point-spread and transfer functions and also examine the detected signal from a sloping plane reflector. Lateral and axial resolution values are given from theoretical data.
ISSN:1559-128X
DOI:10.1364/AO.35.006732