Open AccessOptical signal degradation study in fixed human skin using confocal microscopy and higher-harmonic optical microscopy
Author(s) -
Tsung Han Tsai,
Shih-Peng Tai,
Wei-Jei Lee,
HsinYi Huang,
YiHua Liao,
ChiKuang Sun
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/opex.14.000749
Subject(s) - optics , microscopy , materials science , femtosecond , optical microscope , confocal microscopy , signal (programming language) , laser , point spread function , second harmonic generation , confocal , microscope , scanning confocal electron microscopy , physics , scanning electron microscope , computer science , programming language
Confocal and nonlinear optical microscopies have been applied for dermatological studies because of their capability to provide sub-surface three-dimensional images with sub-microm spatial resolutions. Optical signal degradation as the imaging plane being moved toward deeper regions in skin specimens is the key factor that limits the observation depth for the laser scanning based linear or nonlinear imaging modalities. In this article, we studied the signal degradation in fixed human skin specimens using reflection confocal microscopy and higher-harmonic optical microscopy based on a Cr:forsterite femtosecond laser centered at 1230-nm. By analyzing the optical properties through these linear and nonlinear imaging modalities, we found that the optical signal degradation in the studied human skin specimen is dominated by the distortion of the point spread function.