Shaping field for 3D laser scanning microscopy

Imaging deep tissue can be extremely inefficient when the region of interest is nonplanar and buried in a thick sample, yielding a severely limited effective field-of-view (FOV). Here we describe a novel technique, namely adaptive field microscopy, which improves the efficiency of 3D imaging by controlling the image plane. The plane of scanning laser focus is continuously reshaped in situ to match the conformation of the sample. The practicality is demonstrated for ophthalmic imaging, where a large area of the corneal epithelium of intact mouse eye is captured in a single frame with subcellular resolution. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America