Adaptive optics for microscopy

Practical guides to implementation

A repository for beginners guides, hints, tips and tricks on how to implement adaptive optics in microscopes and related optical systems. Hosted by the Dynamic Optics and Photonics Group, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford.

Adaptive Optics is a valuable tool that can enhance the performance of a broad range of optical systems, but it is often considered challenging to implement. This website provides a range of information to help understand and implement this technology, particularly for microscopy and related methods.

To learn more about the motivation for the site, see the About page. The documents themselves can be found in the Documents section below. If you don’t know where to start, the Basic introduction document gives a broad introduction to the field. Finally, to give feedback or ask any questions, please use the Contact form.

We present two protocols for the alignment of the pinhole in a confocal microscope. The first utilizes motorized scans in the X-Z plane; while the second addresses the condition with only manual axial translation. Both protocols are relevant for reflection and fluorescence mode confocal microscopes.