The divided aperture technique for microscopy through scattering media

Abstract

A diffraction analysis is presented for image formation in confocal microscopy using the divided aperture technique, which uses two D-shaped apertures (also called specular microscopy). The effects of increasing the width of a divider, that separates the two D shapes, are investigated. As the width is increased, the resolution degrades. The efficiency of singly-scattered light rejection is not improved with increased width.