Laser scanning confocal microscopes

• Confocal microscope


  A special type of light microscope that use laser beams (intense beams of light) to scan a specimen that's usually tagged with fluorescent dyes
• How a confocal microscope works

  1. Laser beam focused through a lens

  2. Beam split by a beam splitter

  3. Part of light directed to the specimen

  4. Laser hits fluorescent dyes causing them to give off fluorescent light

  5. Fluorescent light focused through a pinhole onto a detector

  6. Detector hooked up to a computer to generate an image

  7. Pinhole blocks out-of-focus light for clearer image
• Confocal microscope


  • Can be used to look at objects at different depths in thick specimens
  • Multiple images combined by computer to generate 3D images of a specimen
• advantages:

  • greater resolution compared to light microscopes
  • can produce 3D images of cells
  • can visualise specific proteins and structures within the cell and watch them move
• disadvantages:

  • high intensity laser irradiation is harmful to cells and tissues
  • the purchase and operation is costly