Adding new dimensions to laser-scanning fluorescence microscopy.

We describe a novel method of optical imaging by exploiting simple ideas borrowed from pulsed optics. We show that the use of ultrafast pulsed one-photon excitation in laser-scanning fluorescence microscopy dramatically brings together several advantages offered by two widely used present day microscopic techniques, confocal and multi-photon fluorescence microscopy. The method appears as a novel tool in the context of laser-scanning fluorescence microscopy by having a 'built-in' 3D spatial resolution.