%0 Journal Article
%T High resolution multiple excitation spot optical microscopy
%A Shilpa Dilipkumar
%A Partha Pratim Mondal
%J AIP Advances
%D 2011
%I AIP Publishing LLC
%R 10.1063/1.3598413
%X We propose fundamental improvements in three-dimensional (3D) resolution of multiple excitation spot optical microscopy. The excitation point spread function (PSF) is generated by two interfering counter-propagating depth-of-focus beams along the optical axis. Detection PSF is obtained by coherently interfering the emitted fluorescent light (collected by both the objectives) at the detector. System PSF shows upto 14-fold reduction in focal volume as compared to confocal, and almost 2-fold improvement in lateral resolution. Proposed PSF has the ability to simultaneously excite multiple 3D-spots of sub-femtoliter volume. Potential applications are in fluorescence microscopy and nanobioimaging.
%U http://link.aip.org/link/doi/10.1063/1.3598413