Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 3

How does a confocal microscope operate? Why does it provide better images of thick specimens than does the standard compound light microscope?

Step 1 of 2

A confocal microscope collects light only from one specific focal plane. A specimen is generally three-dimensional, which means it has depth. A light microscope collects light information from all focal planes. This limits the resolution of the microscope. A confocal microscope has an aperture that is above the objective. This controls what light hits the detector and is used to form the image. Only light from a specific focal plane is used. Light data can be gathered from multiple single focal planes. The confocal microscope is typically hooked up to a computer that runs software that digitally combines all the light data from all the different focal planes. This creates a high resolution image.