Confocal microscopy through a fiber-optic imaging bundle

This dissertation describes the implementation of confocal microscopy through a fiber-optic imaging bundle. This system, the fiber-optic imaging-bundle confocal microscope, permits the optical-sectioning effect of confocal microscopy to be applied to a range of samples inaccessible to a conventional confocal microscope. Two such systems were designed and built. The first system is a modified laboratory microscope used to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of the fiber-optic imaging-bundle confocal microscope. The second system is a real-time slit-scanning microscope that is expected to be a suitable design for in-vivo medical applications.; Fiber-optic imaging bundles are discussed in some detail. A number of parameters of three flexible silica imaging bundles were measured and the suitability of these bundles for use in the microscope is evaluated. A new reflection technique for measurement of optical-fiber refractive indices was developed and applied to the evaluation of these imaging bundles.