What is a Laser Microscope?

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Microscopes are the devices which magnify objects which are not visible to the naked eye. Microscopes are exclusively used in the field of Science such as medicine, physics,biology and its related fields. Based on how they are used, Microscopes have been classified into Electron, Confocal and Compound. Electron microscopes, which are extremely sophisticated, are used in archeology, medicine, and geology. Compound microscopes are mostly used in biology which give  a 2-D slice of an object while the Confocal microscopes are used to increase the optical resolution and  use point illumination  so that out of focus light is eliminated when viewing specimens.

A Confocal microscope uses a laser beam to illuminate a specimen which is viewed on the computer monitor. The Laser gives a contrasting image when the specimen is dyed with a bright color.

Laser Microscopes were developed to measure the three dimension shapes with a high accuracy without touching the target. These lasers are very harmful to the eyes.

The most commonly tested Laser microscope experiment is with the water. Take the water in the syringe and place it in such a way that you can view from the laser microscope. Press the syringe slowly so as to see that only one drop of water is allowed which is at the tip of the syringe. The Laser microscope will show if there are any bacteria present in the water.

What is the Principle of Laser Microscope?

Ultraviolet light sourced from lamps (made of tungsten or xenon) is used to excite the atoms within a specimen in the conventional type of fluorescence microscopy. The fluorescence which is produced by this is viewed through the microscope. A laser beam is used with the confocal scanning laser microscope. To pass through a specific area of the specimen the objective lens focuses the laser beam. For a more effective processing of light, this area of diffraction is usually limited.

The specimen produces both its own fluorescent light and the reflected light from the laser, Once the laser has passed through it. With the help of beam splitter in the microscope, these two beams of light are then collected by the objective lens and separated once again. The fluorescent light is reflected onto a detection apparatus while the laser light passes through. Further, this light is passed through a pinhole and is detected using a photomultiplier tube which is a photo detection device. This light is then converted in to an electrical pulse is read by a computer. Since this light is out of focus, the detector device is also responsible for blocking any light that is not sourced through the focal point. The result is a very sharp image of the specimen.

The image of the specimen can be produced in pixels when the laser beam used in this type of microscopy and when it is translated by the computer as a whole image, depending on how much of the fluorescent light is detected, as it can vary in intensity.

What are the advantages of Laser Microscope?

Based on the technology of fluorescent microscope, the confocal scanning laser microscope (CSLM) was developed. That is why the CLSM is one of the advanced types of microscope. The fluorescence emission from this type of microcroscopy allows the observer to show images of structures, parts of cells and tissues. Images of the specimen can be produced even in three dimensions.

What are the applications of Laser Microscope?

They are currently widely used in checking the various eye diseases, especially in the cornea area. It is also being used in the pharmaceuticals for studying structures. One can  see the usage of the Laser Microscopes in the data retrieval mechanism in some 3D optical data storage systems. Laser Microscopes are  used extensively in various areas in biology, dentistry, physics,forensics, and research.

  

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