title: Design of a high-numerical-aperture miniature microscope objective for an endoscopic fiber confocal reflectance microscope.
abstract: An endoscopic confocal microscope requires a high-performance, miniaturized microscope objective. We present the design of a miniature water-immersion microscope objective that is approximately 10 times smaller in length than a typical commercial objective. The miniature objective is 7 mm in outer diameter and 21 mm in length (from object to image). It is used in a fiber confocal reflectance microscope. The miniature microscope objective has a numerical aperture of 1.0, a field of view of 250 microm, and a working distance of 450 microm. It delivers diffraction-limited performance at lambda = 1064 nm. Micrometer-level resolution has been experimentally demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721, USA. chen.liang@optics.arizona.edu
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Kung-Bin
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Rebecca R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Richards-Kortum
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Descour
mesh_terms: D019723:Endoscopes; D004724:Endoscopy; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000295:instrumentation; D008904:Miniaturization; D055095:Optics and Photonics