Optimized extended depth of focus simulated analysis for confocal microscopy

In imaging systems and especially in confocal microscopy systems there is a trade-off between the lateral resolution and the obtained depth of focus. The use of complex pupils to improve the lateral resolution by engineering the point spread function is a common approach; however the lateral improvement reduces the effective depth of focus and therefore the fluorescence efficiency. In this work we analytically develop an optimized approach for obtaining a complex pupil with an extended depth of focus. The proposed solution is numerically applied and tested in designing an improved focal depth in confocal microscope configuration. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America