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Dear Listers,

I have a basic question about the relationship between photobleaching, 
pixel dwell time and intensity of excitation beam in confocal microscopy. 

Review paper "Optical Sectioning microscopy" in Nature Methods 2005 said 
about bleaching of confocal microscopy.

"The probability that a molecule bleaches depends on its exposure to the 
excitation light. This is the 
product of the irradiance a molecule receives and the time it receives it. 
Thus, a molecule that receives irradiance I1
 of duration t1 is as likely to bleach as one that receives twice the 
irradiance (2I1) for half the time (t
1/2)."

Although this is well accepted among confocal microscopy user, I am 
wondering if there are any data or paper to support this notion.
I also would like to know how exactly same the photobleaching of these two 
cases are.

If someone knows any information, we appreciate comments.

Best Regards,
Shigeo Watanabe, HPK