Understanding the limits of remote focusing

Area of Science:

• Optical microscopy
• Aberration correction
• Remote focusing systems

Background:

• Well-aligned remote focusing microscopes show residual spherical aberration outside the focal plane.
• This aberration can degrade image quality in microscopy applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compensate for residual spherical aberration in remote focusing microscopes.
• To investigate the impact of aberration compensation on the system's performance.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the correction collar on the primary objective, controlled by a stepper motor.
• Employed a Shack-Hartmann wave front sensor to measure spherical aberration.
• Developed an optical model of the objective lens for aberration prediction.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that the correction collar effectively compensates for spherical aberration.
• Validated the magnitude of corrected aberration against the optical model predictions.
• Quantified the limited impact of compensation on the diffraction-limited range, considering other aberrations.

Conclusions:

• Correction collar provides effective compensation for spherical aberration in remote focusing microscopy.
• Aberration compensation has a minimal effect on the system's diffraction-limited performance.
• Further consideration of comatic and astigmatic aberrations is necessary for remote focusing systems.