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confocal microscope
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Diagram of a confocal microscope showing a laser passing through lenses and confocal pinholes, with labeled components including beam splitter, objective, detector, out-of-focus planes, and in-focus plane.
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confocal microscope

instrument
Also known as: confocal scanning microscope
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Diagram of a confocal microscope showing a laser passing through lenses and confocal pinholes, with labeled components including beam splitter, objective, detector, out-of-focus planes, and in-focus plane.
confocal microscope

A confocal microscope is a specialized optical microscope that uses a scanning technique to create sharply defined images by detecting only what is in focus. This is achieved by focusing light, typically from a laser, to a single point and detecting the image through a pinhole. This method effectively eliminates out-of-focus light, making it ideal for examining the fine, three-dimensional structures of biological specimens.1

Laser scanning confocal microscopes (LSCMs) scan a laser's focal point across a specimen to build a 2D optical section. By taking multiple 2D images at different focal depths, 3D images can be reconstructed. These microscopes are crucial tools in biological research, especially for studying living cells and dynamic processes due to their ability to distinguish specimens by fluorescence and capture changes over time.12

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2 Britannica Sources
  1. microscope - Confocal microscopes
  2. 10 Ways of Looking at Cells

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