Fluorescence

Microptik Fluorescence microscopyFluorescence microscope.

A fluorescence microscope is an optical microscope used to study properties of organic or inorganic substances using the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence instead of, or in addition to, reflection and absorption.[1][2] The term "fluorescence microscope" is colloquially synonymous with epifluorescence microscope but also refers to microscope designs such as the confocal microscope which also use fluorescence to generate the image. All fluorescence microscopy methods share the same principle. A sample is illuminated with light of a one wavelength which causes fluorescence in the sample. The light emitted by fluorescence, which is at a different, longer, wavelength than the illumination, is then detected through a microscope objective. Two filters are normally used in this technique; an illumination (or exitation) filter which ensures the illumination is near monochromatic and at the correct wavelength, and a second emission (or detection) filter which ensures none of the exitation light source reaches the detector. Fluorescence microscopy takes a fundamentally different approach to generating a light microscope image compared to transmitted or reflected white light techniques such as phase contrast and differential interference. These two contrasting optical microscopy methods give very different but complementary data.