REAL-TIME HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONFOCAL LASER SCANNING OPTICAL MICROSCOPE

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A no-moving-parts, 30 frames per second, laser beam scanning confocal reflected light microscope has been developed. In principle the technique can be extended to fluorescence and transmission light microscopy. Acousto-optic beam deflectors, controlled by all digital electronics, move a laser beam in a 512 line interlaced 8.5mm square raster. The light enters an inverted microscope through the side camera port, and is imaged at the object by the microscope objective. Reflected light returns through the objective, out the camera port, through a beam splitter, and is imaged onto the photocathode of an Image Dissector Tube (IDT) . Confocality is provided by raster scanning the IDT aperture coincident with the congruent image of the laser beam incident on the object. Real time jitter-free reflected light images-of a variety of biological objects have been produced. Computer controlled alignment of the laser scan and IDT is performed in several seconds.