Confocal imaging through weakly aberrating media.
The effect on confocal imaging of spherical aberration caused by a weak refractive-index mismatch is discussed. Aberration balancing that uses a change in the objective's tube length is studied. It is found that the range of depths that can be imaged satisfactorily by a high-numerical-aperture objective with compensation is an order of magnitude greater than that without compensation. The aberration balancing tends to break down for extremely high numerical apertures.
Sheppard
C J
CJ
Department of Physical Optics, School of Physics and the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. colin@physics.usyd.edu.au