What does a fluorescence microscope do
Fluorescence microscopes used for research applications work on the basis of a set of optical filters:
An excitation filter
a beam splitter
an emission filter
These filters are usually inserted together in a filter block (compound microscopes) or in a flat receptacle (mainly stereo microscopes).
The excitation filter will select the wavelength to excite a particular dye within the specimen, and the emission filter acts as a quality control, allowing only the wavelength emitted by a particular fluorophore to pass through. Dichroic filters are used to reflect light in the excitation band and pass light in the emission band to produce classical fluorescence incident light.
Fluorescence is one of the most commonly used physical phenomena in biological and analytical microscopy, mainly because of its high sensitivity and specificity. Fluorescence is a form of cold luminescence.
Fluorescence microscopy even allows the user to determine the distribution and number of individual molecular species and their location within the cell. The study of co-regionalisation and interactions, ion concentrations as well as the observation of cytosis and cytotoxicity processes between cells can be achieved.
With the help of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, even sub-resolution structures can be imaged.
