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When exiting a rhodamine film on a coverslip we measure with a 63x 1.4
NA lens a half with beam diameter of about 1µm. This was done with a
Zeiss LSM510.

Regards,
Gert  van Cappellen

Robert Zucker wrote:

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Question on Laser Spot size
>The spot size on a flow cytometer is extended with optics to allow the
>cell or particle to pass though it.  I believe the beam size  is around
>20um by 100um. It is hard to get real small spot sizes.
>
>A confocal microscope focuses its beam on a specific pixel in a field .
>For a 512 x 512 image it does this 512 times each line scan and there
>are 512 lines. A lot of individual points. Does anyone know what  the
>approximate  size of the laser beam that  hits the pixel in a sample.  I
>guess the  NA of the lens has some bearing on the spot size. Does this
>not effect the accuracy of a one photon confocal mciroscope?
>Bob
>
>Robert M. Zucker, PhD
>U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
>Office of Research and Development
>National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory
>Reproductive Toxicology Division, MD 72
>Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711
>Tel: 919-541-1585; fax 919-541-4017
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>