2006/03/01 by Nicolas Sandeau, N. Sandeau, H. Giovannini +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques #Optical Coherence Tomography Applications #Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging #physics.bio-ph #physics.comp-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2006.02.017
published as Optics Communications 264 (2006) 123-129
openalex publication_date 2006/03/01 · arxiv created 2006/10/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The main advantage of two-photon fluorescence confocal microscopy is the low absorption obtained with live tissues at the wavelengths of operation. However, the resolution of two-photon fluorescence confocal microscopes is lower than in the case of one-photon excitation. The 4Pi microscope type C working in two-photon regime, in which the excitation beams are coherently superimposed and, simultaneously, the emitted beams are also coherently added, has shown to be a good solution for increasing the resolution along the optical axis and for reducing the amplitude of the side lobes of the point spread function. However, the resolution in the transverse plane is poorer than in the case of one-photon excitation due to the larger wavelength involved in the two-photon fluorescence process. In this paper we show that a particular arrangement of the 4Pi microscope, referenced as 4Pi0 microscope, is a solution for obtaining a lateral resolution in the two-photon regime similar or even better to that obtained with 4Pi microscopes working in the one-photon excitation regime.