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Am 16.03.2014 16:07, schrieb John Oreopoulos:
> Apparently there are brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, and even fluorescence versions available. And I ask, can one make a confocal version of this?
Well, this is a simple microscope, not a compound one. So there is no
intermediate image and thus no plane where one could place the detection
pinhole. Therefore, the short answer is no, you can't make a confocal
version.
Of course, one could try to redesign the whole thing. One would probably
need a more stable stand to ensure a fixed tube length. Or, use infinity
optics. What to use for detector? Maybe a smartphone camera in a
spinning disk version? I guess in any case we would move far far away
from the <1$ goal. Still might be an interesting and fun-project to try...
Here are some designs to try, from the 1960ies, so the patent is
expired. One is with Nipkow-disks, another with double-sided mirror
which is used for scanning and descanning.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KlausWeber-USPatent3518014-Fig7.png
(see also other images linked on the page)
I guess the images are sort of self-explanatory to the confocalist. For
an English description, you have to click on the linked patent
application, a short German description can be found here:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konfokalmikroskop#1966:_.E2.80.9EVorrichtung_zur_optischen_Abtastung_mikroskopischer_Objekte.E2.80.9C
The fun part would be to figure out how to build a confocal really
cheap. Let's not think about whether it would be worth it, that'd
probably spoil the whole approach...
Cheers,
Steffen
--
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Steffen Dietzel, PD Dr. rer. nat
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Walter-Brendel-Zentrum für experimentelle Medizin (WBex)
Head of light microscopy
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