PSF Lab is a software program that allows the calculation of the illumination

point spread function The point spread function (PSF) describes the response of a focused optical imaging system to a point source or point object. A more general term for the PSF is the system's impulse response; the PSF is the impulse response or impulse response ...

(PSF) of a

confocal microscope Confocal microscopy, most frequently confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) or laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), is an optical imaging technique for increasing optical resolution and contrast of a micrograph by means of using a sp ...

under various imaging conditions. The calculation of the electric field vectors is based on a rigorous, vectorial model that takes

polarization Polarization or polarisation may refer to: Mathematics *Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds *Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by ...

effects in the near-focus region and high

numerical aperture In optics, the numerical aperture (NA) of an optical system is a dimensionless number that characterizes the range of angles over which the system can accept or emit light. By incorporating index of refraction in its definition, has the property ...

microscope objective In optical engineering, an objective is an optical element that gathers light from an object being observed and focuses the light rays from it to produce a real image of the object. Objectives can be a single lens or mirror, or combinations of ...

s into account. The polarization of the input beam (assumed to be

collimated A collimated beam of light or other electromagnetic radiation has parallel rays, and therefore will spread minimally as it propagates. A laser beam is an archetypical example. A perfectly collimated light beam, with no divergence, would not disp ...

and

monochromatic A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

) can be chosen freely (linear, circular, or elliptic). Furthermore, a constant or

Gaussian Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) is the eponym of all of the topics listed below. There are over 100 topics all named after this German mathematician and scientist, all in the fields of mathematics, physics, and astronomy. The English eponymo ...

shaped input beam intensity profile can be assumed. On its way from the

objective Objective may refer to: * Objectivity, the quality of being confirmed independently of a mind. * Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope * ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film * Objective pronoun, a personal pron ...

to the

focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

, the illumination light passes through up to three stratified optical layers, which allows the simulation of an immersion oil/air (layer 1) objective that focusses light through a glass cover slip (layer 2) into the sample medium (layer 3). Each layer is characterized by its (constant)

refractive index In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is the ratio of the apparent speed of light in the air or vacuum to the speed in the medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refrac ...

and thickness. PSF Lab can also simulate

s that are corrected for certain refractive indices and cover slip thicknesses (design parameters). Thus, any deviations from the ideal imaging conditions for which the objective was designed for are properly taken into account. The following optical parameters can be selected:PSF Lab Getting Started Manual
/ref> * Input beam **

Wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

** Gaussian profile filling parameter (0 = constant profile) ** Polarization (linear, circular, elliptic) * Outputs ** Individual field components ** Squared field components ** Intensity * Microscope objective ** Numerical aperture * Optical media ** Refractive index (design and actual) ** Thickness (design and actual) ** Depth (focus position within medium 3) The program calculates only 2D section of the PSF, but several calculations can be stacked (with a third party program) to obtain the full 3D PSF. Calculations are organized in "sets", each with its own set of parameters. Loops can be set up such that PSF Lab calculates one or several sets, increasing the resolution of the calculated images in each new iteration. The resulting image is displayed in PSF Lab in linear or

logarithmic Logarithmic can refer to: * Logarithm, a transcendental function in mathematics * Logarithmic scale, the use of the logarithmic function to describe measurements * Logarithmic spiral, * Logarithmic growth * Logarithmic distribution, a discrete pro ...

color scale with user-selectable color map, and the intensity, individual field components, or squared field component distributions can be exported into various formats (data formats: .mat, .h5 (HDF5), .txt (ASCII); image formats: .fig, .ai, .bmp, .emf, .eps, .jpg, .pcx, .pdf, .png, .tif).

References

External links

*
''Molecular Expressions''
introduction to deconvolution using PSFs. Optical software Physics software {{science-software-stub

See also

References

External links