LASER SOURCES IN DIRECT-VIEW-SCANNING, TANDEM-SCANNING, OR NIPKOW-DISK-SCANNING CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY

Laser sources offer a potentially low-cost means of improving the ligh t throughput in tandem-scanning confocal microscopy because of their h igh beam directionality. We measure and compare the optical sectioning characteristics of the tandem-scanning microscope (TSM) employing (i) the traditional choice of incoherent light from a Xe are lamp and (ii ) a cited alternative-coherent light from a He-Ne laser source. In gen eral the laser source is found to result in axial responses with prono unced sidelobes, the sizes and locations of which are extremely sensit ive to the alignment of the pinhole array. The implications of these r esults for practical TSM systems are discussed. (C) 1998 Optical Socie ty of America.