Abstract
Strictly, to obtain true confocal imaging the detector pinhole must be infinitesimally small, which would of course result in a vanishingly weak image signal. On the other hand, a very large pinhole degrades the confocal imaging effect. So in practice it is necessary to adopt some optimum diameter for the pinhole, which will depend on the design of the microscope, how it is operated, and the type of specimen. The resultant imaging performance then also depends on these various factors. In this way we can compare the performance of different designs of confocal microscope, and also compare them with widefield (WF) microscopes that have electronic image capture coupled with digital three-dimensional (3D) image restoration. In addition, we can understand how best to use the microscope in order to achieve optimum imaging performance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Reference
Awamura, D., and Ode, T., 1992, Optical Properties of Type1 — Type 2 Microscopes, New Trends in Scanning Optical Microscopy, Okinawa, Japan.
Benedetti, D.A., Evangelista, V., et al., 1992, Confocal line microscopy, J. Microsc. 165:119–129.
Brakenhoff, G.J., and Visscher, K., 1992, Confocal imaging with bilateral scanning and array detectors, J. Microsc. 165:139–146.
Cogswell, C.J., and Sheppard, C.J.R., 1990, Confocal brightfield imaging techniques using an on-axis scanning optical microscope, In: Confocal Microscopy (T. Wilson, ed.), Academic Press, London, pp. 213–243.
Cox, I.J., and Sheppard, C.J.R., 1983, Digital image processing of confocal images, Image Vis. Comput. 1:52–56.
Draaijer, A., and Houpt, P.M., 1988, A standard video-rate confocal laserscanning reflection and fluorescence microscope, Scanning 10:139–145.
Dunn, A.K., Smithpeter, C., et al., 1996, Sources of contrast in confocal reflectance imaging, Appl. Opt. 35:3441–3446.
Gan, X.S., and Sheppard, C.J.R., 1993, Detectability: A new criterion for evaluation of the confocal microscope, Scanning 15:187–192.
Gu, M., and Sheppard, C.J.R., 1991, Effects of finite-sized detector on the OTF of confocal fluorescent microscopy, Optik 89:65–69.
Huang, D., Swanson, E.A., et al., 1991, Optical coherence tomography, Science 254:1178–1181.
Koester, C.J., 1980, A scanning mirror microscope with optical sectioning characteristics: Applications in ophthalmology, Appl. Opt. 19:1749–1757.
Petrán˘, M., Hadravsky, M., et al., 1968, Tandem scanning reflected light microscope, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 58:661–664.
Roy, M., and Sheppard, C.J.R., 1993, Effect of image processing on the noise properties of confocal imaging, Micron 24:623–635.
Shannon, C.E., 1949, Communications in the presence of noise, Proc. Inst. Radio Eng. 37:10–21.
Sheppard, C.J.R., 1991, Stray light and noise in confocal microscopy, Micron Microsc. Acta 22:239–243.
Sheppard, C.J.R., and Cogswell, C.J., 1990, Three-dimensional imaging in confocal microscopy, In: Confocal Microscopy (T. Wilson, ed.), Academic Press, London, pp. 143–169.
Sheppard, C.J.R., Cogswell, C.J., et al., 1991, Signal strength and noise in confocal microscopy: Factors influencing selection of an optimum detector aperture, Scanning 13:233–240.
Sheppard, C.J.R., Gu, M., et al., 1992, Signal to noise ratio in confocal microscope systems, J. Microsc. 168:209–218.
Sheppard, C.J.R., Hamilton, D.K., et al., 1983, Optical microscopy with extended depth of field, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A 387:171–186.
Sheppard, C.J.R., and Mao, X., 1988, Confocal microscopes with slit apertures, J. Mod. Opt. 35:1169–1185.
Slusher, R.E., Hollberg, L.W., et al., 1985, Observation of squeezed states generated by four-wave mixing in an optical cavity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55:2409–2412.
Webb, W.W., Wells, K.S., et al., 1990, Optical Microscopy for Biology, Wiley-Liss, New York.
Wells, K.S., Sandison, D.R., et al., 1990, Quantitative confocal fluorescence with laser scanning confocal microscopy, In: Handbook of Biological Confocal Microscopy (J. B. Pawley, ed.), Plenum Press, New York, pp. 23–35.
Wilson, T., and Hamilton, D.K., 1982, Dynamic focussing in the confocal microscope, J. Microsc. 128:139–148.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sheppard, C.J.R., Gan, X., Gu, M., Roy, M. (2006). Signal-to-Noise Ratio in Confocal Microscopes. In: Pawley, J. (eds) Handbook Of Biological Confocal Microscopy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-45524-2_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-45524-2_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-25921-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-45524-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)