Optimization for imaging through scattering media for confocal microscopes with divided elliptical apertures

We develop a confocal system equipped with optimal elliptical apertures to improve axial point spread function and signal‐to‐background ratio (SBR) for different detector sizes. By adjusting the parameters of the elliptical apertures, the axial half width at half‐maximum can be reduced to 4.986 (described in optical coordinates) and SBR can be improved to 0.176. We evaluate this system with the 1951 USAF resolution test chart and the primary cultured neuron from SD rat stained by Map‐2, and observe better imaging performance, which indicates the potential applications in biological science. Confocal microscopy is widely used for its high‐resolution due to the high‐background rejection capability. Here, we introduce divided elliptical apertures to further improve the background rejection capability with angular gating technique. By adjusting the shape of the elliptical apertures, the optimization for axial response and signal‐to‐background ratio with different detector sizes can be obtained, which can be used to guide the system design for specific applications. Imaging results with elliptical apertures in vy − u section of the resolution test chart and the primary cultured neuron from SD rat stained by Map‐2.