Parallel Confocal Microscopy Using High-Order Axially Symmetric Polarized Beams

A novel scheme of parallel confocal microscopy using high-order axially symmetric polarized beams (ASPBs) is proposed. The basic concept of ASPBs is introduced first, then the principle of the scheme is presented, finally some numerical results are shown to verify the feasibility of the scheme. Seen from the results, multiple imaging spots are obtained and the size of spots is about 70% of the spot size in the single lens microscopy, and a kind of high temporal and spatial resolution parallel confocal microscopy is achieved, which may find wide applications in the fields of 3D profile measurement and biomedical imaging. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:302-308, 2015. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.