DI FRANCO , Elisabetta

Confocal fluorescence microscopy is a well-established imaging technique capable of generating thin optical sections of biological specimens. Optical sectioning in confocal microscopy is mainly determined by the size of the pinhole, a small aperture placed in front of a point detector. In principle, imaging with a closed pinhole provides the...

In point-scanning microscopy, optical sectioning is achieved using a small aperture placed in front of the detector, i.e. the detection pinhole, which rejects the out-of-focus background. The maximum level of optical sectioning is theoretically obtained for the minimum size of the pinhole aperture, but this is normally prevented by the dramatic...