Improvement of detected intensity in confocal microscopy by using reflecting optical system

Abstract

In confocal microscopy, the level of the detected intensity is low, which reduces the contrast of the images. We propose a reflecting optical system to improve the detected intensity. The result of the optimal design is presented and the performance of the resulting reflecting optical system is evaluated. A numerical simulation of the effect of the reflecting optical system on the total system performance is also presented. A standard specimen is imaged to show the benefits of the proposed reflecting optical system. The results in this Note demonstrate a 37% increase of the detected intensity and better contrast of the image. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.