Direct oblique plane imaging is a high-speed microscopy technique that observes a sample’s plane that is inclined to the focal plane of the microscope objective lens. This wide-field microscopy is suitable for a study of fast dynamics of living samples where the principle plane of interest is tilted to the focal plane. A way to implement this imaging technique is to use remote focusing together with a tilted mirror, which involves asymmetrical pupil function of the imaging system. We rigorously study the anisotropic resolving power of the oblique plane imaging using a vectorial diffraction theory. From the derived effective pupil function, we calculate vectorial point spread function (PSF) and optical transfer function (OTF). We show that the two-dimensional (2D) PSF of the direct oblique plane imaging is not merely an oblique crosssection of the 3D PSF of circular aperture system. Similarly, 2D OTF of the oblique plane imaging is different from 2D oblique projection of conventional 3D OTF in circular aperture system.

Date Published: 9 March 2015
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9330, Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XXII, 93300E (9 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2078008

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9330:
Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XXII
Thomas G. Brown; Carol J. Cogswell; Tony Wilson, Editor(s)