Abstract

Optical transfer functions are presented for the confocal theta fluorescence microscope, which uses an orthogonally placed objective lens to detect the fluorescence emission. Therefore the transfer functions do not exhibit cylindrical symmetry about the illumination axis. We show that in an ideal noise-free system, confocal theta microscopy increases the cutoff spatial frequency along the illumination axis by a factor of 3.5 to 3.7 for a numerical aperture of 0.75. In a system with 10% noise the improvement by confocal theta microscopy is even greater, between a factor of 4.1 and 4.4. This explains the improved three-dimensional imaging properties of theta microscopy.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article

References

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access OSA Member Subscription

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access OSA Member Subscription

Figures (4)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access OSA Member Subscription

Tables (2)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article tables are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access OSA Member Subscription

Equations (8)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access OSA Member Subscription

Metrics

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access OSA Member Subscription