FLUORESCENCE SATURATION IN CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY

The effects of fluorescence saturation on imaging in confocal microscopy have been studied. To include saturation it was necessary to deviate from the widely assumed linear relationship between the fluorescence and the illumination intensity. The lateral response for a point-like object, as well as the optical sectioning power, decreases depending on the degree of saturation. For very high illumination intensities the response for a saturated point object approached that of a conventional fluorescence microscope in which the fluorescence was not saturated. The decrease in the axial confocal response has been confirmed qualitatively by experiment.