Scanning confocal total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy by using radial polarization in the illumination system.

We report on a scanning total internal reflection fluorescence microscope with improved imaging properties. In the illumination system of the developed microscope, radial polarization is employed to obtain the point spread function with a single and circular peak. By using radial polarization, the confocal detection method, which can reduce the background noise of the image, is effectively applicable in the optical system. The observed image of a fluorescent particle with the size of 200 nm reveals the improvement of the imaging properties.