confocal microscopy

Scanned illumination with a fine pattern (e.g., diffraction-limited point) and detection through an aperture mask matching the illumination pattern in a conjugate field plane, which rejects out-of-focus light.

See also: confocal, confocal volume, confocal theta microscopy, array-scanning confocal microscopy, spinning disk confocal microscopy, optical section

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Confocal

Confocal microscopy offers several advantages over conventional optical microscopy, including controllable depth of field, the elimination of image degrading out-of-focus information, and the ability to collect serial optical sections from thick specimens.