| abstract |
In a first SCAPE imaging system, a Powell lens (105) is used to expand light from a light source (100) into a sheet of illumination light. An optical system (125,131,132,140) sweeps the sheet of illumination light through a sample (145), and forms an image at a tilted intermediate image plane (170) from detected return light. A camera (190) captures images of the intermediate image plane. In a second SCAPE imaging system, an optical system (125,131,132,140) sweeps the sheet of illumination light through a sample (145), and forms an image at a tilted intermediate image plane (170) from detected return light. A camera (190) captures images of the intermediate image plane. The detection optics are deliberately misaligned with respect to a true alignment position so that a significant portion of light that would be lost at the true alignment position will arrive at the camera. |