Image of the Week - 18 July 2002

Montage of 3-D Animation of Confocal Microscope Point Spread Functions

Fluorescent 190 nanometer diameter polystyrene spheres imaged through laser scanning confocal microscopy (<a href="http://www.micromaestro.org">animated version</a>). The image illustrates the distortion of axial (z-plane) resolution due to spherical aberration arising from an index mis-match of the mounting media. The spheres were imaged through 20 microns of glycerol-gelatin using a 63x 1.32NA oil immersion objective and 543 nanometer wavelength light. The field of view (each frame) is 740 nanometers.

Image Courtesy: Karl Garsha, Light Microscopy Specialist, Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC

Contact: garsha@itg.uiuc.edu