A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Refractive-index-induced aberrations in two-photon confocal fluorescence microscopy




AuthorsJacobson H., Hanninen P., Soini E., Hell S.

Publication year1994

Journal:Journal of Microscopy

Journal name in sourceJournal of Microscopy

Volume176

Issue3

First page 226

Last page230

ISSN0022-2720

Web address http://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id:0028590110


Abstract
The effect of refractive index mismatch on the image quality in two-photon confocal fluorescence microscopy is investigated by experiment and numerical calculations. The results show a strong decrease in the image brightness using high-aperture objectives when the image plane is moved deeper into the sample. When exciting at 740 nm and recording the fluorescence around 460 nm in a glycerol-mounted sample using a lens of a numerical aperture of 14 (oil immersion), a 25% decrease in the intensity is observed at a depth of 9 μm. In an aqueous sample, the same decrease is observed at a depth of 3 μm. By reducing the numerical aperture to 1.0, the intensity decrease can be avoided at the expense of the overall resolution and signal intensity. The experiments are compared with the predictions of a theory that takes into account the vectorial character of light and the refraction of the wavefronts according to Fermat's principle. Advice is given concerning how the effects can be taken into account in practice.



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