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Practical limits of resolution in confocal and non‐linear microscopy
Author(s) -
Cox Guy,
Sheppard Colin J.R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.10423
Subject(s) - microscope , confocal , 4pi microscope , optics , resolution (logic) , confocal microscopy , microscopy , pinhole (optics) , optical sectioning , materials science , fluorescence microscope , physics , multiphoton fluorescence microscope , fluorescence , computer science , artificial intelligence
Calculated and measured resolution figures are presented for confocal microscopes with different pinhole sizes and for nonlinear (2‐photon and second harmonic) microscopes. A modest degree of super‐resolution is predicted for a confocal microscope but in practice this is not achievable and confocal fluorescence gives little resolution improvement over widefield. However, practical non‐linear microscopes do approach their theoretical resolution and therefore show no resolution disadvantage relative to confocal microscopes in spite of the longer excitation wavelength. Microsc. Res. Tech. 63:18–22, 2004. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.