Aberration-free optical refocusing in high numerical aperture microscopy

We describe a method of optical refocusing for high numerical aperture (NA) systems that is particularly relevant for confocal and multiphoton microscopy. This method avoids the spherical aberration that is common to other optical refocusing systems. We show that aberration-free images can be obtained over an axial scan range of 70 (m mu) for a 1.4 NA objective lens. As refocusing is implemented remotely from the specimen, this method will enable high axial scan speeds without mechanical interference between the objective lens and the specimen. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.