Description
Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is a three-dimensional see-through optical imaging system that employs a laser as a light source to enable noninvasive observation of a sample’s internal structures. Among the various optical components constituting CLSM, a pinhole, which is a micron-scale circular spatial filter, is essential. A pinhole is an optical element that enables optical sectioning to obtain a fluoroscopic image of the inside of a sample tissue. The pinhole blocks out-of-focus light and transmits only the light generated in the focal plane to the detector for visualization. This process is called optical sectioning. Furthermore, the optical sectioning thickness, axial resolution, and brightness of the images are determined based on the pinhole size. Pinholes of different sizes must be replaced according to the observation object and the tissue types. However, when the pinhole is replaced, it leads to the re-alignment of the optical system, which takes tens of minutes. It acts as a factor that makes real-time imaging difficult in many observations of in vivo biological samples, which require a few milliseconds. In this study, we developed a PDLC-based tunable pinhole whose size could be adjusted within the 70–100 ms without requiring the optical system to be re-aligned.
| I am the presenting author | Yes |
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