Automated adjustment of aberration correction in scanning confocal microscopy

This contribution demonstrates an automated adjustment of the coverslip correction collar in scanning confocal microscopy to compensate for aberrations caused by coverslip thickness mismatch. An axial image model is derived for filtering the measured axial image to improve the signal to noise ratio. To find the best collar alignment, 70 axial scans equally spaced over the actuation range are recorded and evaluated automatically. The axial scans reveal that different coverslips have a shift of the maximum intensity for optimal imaging along the collar angle. Correction quality such as the maximum intensity or sharpness of the image are examined and used to find the optimal adjustment. The proposed automated correction is demonstrated with two different coverslips and two biological specimen showing the improved resolution of the obtained confocal microscopy images.