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2 Product Overview
2.1 Principle of the Confocal Microscope
As conventional optical microscopes use surface light sources such as halogen lamp
or others, diffused light from places other than the point of interest are mixed with
the light from the point of interest. Further, when planar photo detectors like
cameras or eyes are used, blurred, out-of-focus light from the points shifted toward
the optical axis are observed, overlapped with the observed light. For these reasons,
the conventional optical microscope has a limited spatial resolution. On the contrary,
confocal microscope systems use laser beams to illuminate samples with pin-point
accuracy, to eliminate diffused light from sources other than the point of interest. In
addition, pin-hole windows are provided in front of the light detector to cut off the
light from sources other than the point of interest for high resolution.
Figure 2-1 Principle of the confocal microscope
Detector
Light source
Pinhole window
Objective lens
Focal plane
Specimen
Beam splitter
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