Colour confocal reflection microscopy using red,green and blue lasers

To obtain colour reflected confocal images we have incorporated three lasers (HeNe: 633 nm; NdYAG: 532 nm; HeCd: 442 nm) and three photomultiplier detectors into our on-axis scanning system then adjusted the registration of the simultaneous output signals to produce full-colour images on a video monitor. Colour confocal images were produced from multi-stained fixed tissue as well as from natural pigments in fresh plant material. Rayleigh scattering properties of immunogold-labelled specimens were studied to show how variations in colour response can be utilized to identify subwavelength gold particles. Colour stereo pairs were produced to illustrate the accuracy with which the three-laser microscope system can record depth information without incurring problems due to chromatic aberration effects.