Optical signal degradation study in fixed human skin using confocal microscopy and higher-harmonic optical microscopy.
Confocal and nonlinear optical microscopies have been applied for dermatological studies because of their capability to provide sub-surface three-dimensional images with sub-microm spatial resolutions. Optical signal degradation as the imaging plane being moved toward deeper regions in skin specimens is the key factor that limits the observation depth for the laser scanning based linear or nonlinear imaging modalities. In this article, we studied the signal degradation in fixed human skin specimens using reflection confocal microscopy and higher-harmonic optical microscopy based on a Cr:forsterite femtosecond laser centered at 1230-nm. By analyzing the optical properties through these linear and nonlinear imaging modalities, we found that the optical signal degradation in the studied human skin specimen is dominated by the distortion of the point spread function.
Tsai
Tsung-Han
TH
Tai
Shih-Peng
SP
Lee
Wen-Jeng
WJ
Huang
Hsin-Yi
HY
Liao
Yi-Hua
YH
Sun
Chi-Kuang
CK