Microscope calibration using laser written fluorescence

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using laser written fluorescence patterns for quick, quantitative calibration of fluorescence microscopes, addressing the lack of standardization in optical characterization.

Contribution

It presents a new calibration technique employing laser written patterns to measure key imaging parameters in fluorescence microscopes.

Findings

Effective measurement of lateral resolution and illumination uniformity.

Quantitative assessment of lens distortion and color plane alignment.

Applicable to confocal and structured illumination microscopes.

Abstract

There is currently no widely adopted standard for the optical characterisation of fluorescence microscopes. We used laser written fluorescence to generate two- and three-dimensional patterns to deliver a quick and quantitative measure of imaging performance. We report on the use of two laser written patterns to measure the lateral resolution, illumination uniformity, lens distortion and colour plane alignment using confocal and structured illumination fluorescence microscopes.