Left: Images of fluorescent particles that are above, at and below (top to bottom) the vertical position of best focus of a microscope. Calibrating the effects of lens aberrations on the apparent shape and position of the particle images enables accurate measurement of the position in all three spatial dimensions using an ordinary optical microscope. Right: Tracking and combining information from many fluorescent particles on a tiny rotating gear tests the results of the new calibration and elucidates the motion of a complex microsystem in all three dimensions. Credit: NIST
June 24, 2021
Conventional microscopes provide essential information about samples in two dimensions — the plane of the microscope slide. But flat is not all that. In many instances, information about the object in the third dimension — the axis perpendicular to the microscope slide — is just as important to measure.
