Abstract

A description is given of a confocal scanning microscope in which a two-mode optical fiber is used both to launch the light into the microscope and to detect the image signal. There is a discussion of the variety of imaging modes that result from variation of the combination of fiber modes used to launch and to detect the signal. The form of the three-dimensional transfer function is considered in all the cases, and the effect of the finite size of the fiber core is included.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

Image formation in a fiber-optical confocal scanning microscope

Min Gu, C. J. R. Sheppard, and X. Gan
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 8(11) 1755-1761 (1991)

Three-dimensional coherent transfer functions in fiber-optical confocal scanning microscopes

Min Gu, X. Gan, and C. J. R. Sheppard
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 8(7) 1019-1025 (1991)

Confocal scanning optical microscope using single-mode fiber for signal detection

Shigeharu Kimura and Tony Wilson
Appl. Opt. 30(16) 2143-2150 (1991)

Three-dimensional optical transfer function in a fiber-optical confocal fluorescence microscope using annular lenses

Min Gu and C. J. R. Sheppard
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 9(11) 1991-1999 (1992)

Surface profiling with scanning optical microscopes using two-mode optical fibers

R. Juškaitis and T. Wilson
Appl. Opt. 31(22) 4569-4574 (1992)