Confocal imaging with orthogonally polarized illumination beams

In confocal microscopy the polarization of the illumination beam plays an important role in determining the orientation of the fluorescent molecules being illuminated. The efficiency of the excitation depends on the angle between the excitation electric field and the direction of the molecular dipole. In order to determine the orientation of the fluorescent molecules in the focal plane the molecules are to be excited using two mutually orthogonal electric fields. In this paper we show how a computer generated holography technique can be implemented using a ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator to conveniently obtain two images of the same target once with an X polarized illumination beam and another with a Y polarized illumination beam.