Abstract

The propagation of rays in the optical system of a multichannel confocal microscope is numerically modelled in the Gaussian approximation, making it possible to estimate the shape of the image profile of a focused laser beam in a thick phosphor layer. The proposed method creates the possibility of calculating the signal-to-background-illumination-noise ratio of a confocal system in the case of a large number of parallel channels without using extensive computer resources. The results are compared with experimental measurements made by successively scanning a thick fluorophore layer in depth.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

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