page_title: PSF Lab
hierarchical_section_title: PSF Lab
caption_attribution_description: English: Screenshot of PSF Lab 3.0 under Windows 7 x64. It shows a calculated Point Spread Function of a confocal microscope with some aberrations in the xz plane as an example. Français&#160;: Capture d'écran/screenshot de PSF Lab 3.0 sous Windows 7 x64. Un example d'une fonction d'étalement du point (anglais: Point Spread Function) calculée dans le plan xz avec quelques aberrations optiques est montré. Deutsch: Screenshot von PSF Lab 3.0 unter Windows 7 x64. Als Beispiel wird eine Punktspreizfunktion (engl. Point Spread Function) in der xz Ebene mit kleinen optischen Aberrationen gezeigt.
context_page_description: PSF Lab is a software program that allows the calculation of the illumination point spread function of a confocal microscope under various imaging conditions. The calculation of the electric field vectors is based on a rigorous, vectorial model that takes polarization effects in the near-focus region and high numerical aperture microscope objectives into account.
  The polarization of the input beam can be chosen freely. Furthermore, a constant or Gaussian shaped input beam intensity profile can be assumed. On its way from the objective to the focus, the illumination light passes through up to three stratified optical layers, which allows the simulation of an immersion oil/air objective that focusses light through a glass cover slip into the sample medium. Each layer is characterized by its refractive index and thickness. PSF Lab can also simulate microscope objectives that are corrected for certain refractive indices and cover slip thicknesses. Thus, any deviations from the ideal imaging conditions for which the objective was designed for are properly taken into account.
  The following optical parameters can be selected:
  Input beam
  Wavelength
  Gaussian profile filling parameter
context_section_description: PSF Lab is a software program that allows the calculation of the illumination point spread function (PSF) of a confocal microscope under various imaging conditions. The calculation of the electric field vectors is based on a rigorous, vectorial model that takes polarization effects in the near-focus region and high numerical aperture microscope objectives into account.
  The polarization of the input beam (assumed to be collimated and monochromatic) can be chosen freely (linear, circular, or elliptic). Furthermore, a constant or Gaussian shaped input beam intensity profile can be assumed. On its way from the objective to the focus, the illumination light passes through up to three stratified optical layers, which allows the simulation of an immersion oil/air (layer 1) objective that focusses light through a glass cover slip (layer 2) into the sample medium (layer 3). Each layer is characterized by its (constant) refractive index and thickness. PSF Lab can also simulate microscope objectives that are corrected for certain refractive indices and cover slip thicknesses (design parameters). Thus, any deviations from the ideal imaging conditions for which the objective was designed for are properly taken into account.
  The following optical parameters can be selected:
  Input beam
  Wavelength
  Gaussian profile filling parameter (0 = constant profile)
  Polarization (linear, circular, elliptic)
  Outputs
  Individual field components
  Squared field components
  Intensity
  Microscope objective
  Numerical aperture
  Optical media
  Refractive index (design and actual)
  Thickness (design and actual)
  Depth (focus position within medium 3)
  The program calculates only 2D section of the PSF, but several calculations can be stacked (with a third party program) to obtain the full 3D PSF. Calculations are organized in "sets", each with its own set of parameters. Loops can be set up such that PSF Lab calculates one or several sets, increasing the resolution of the calculated images in each new iteration. The resulting image is displayed in PSF Lab in linear or logarithmic color scale with user-selectable color map, and the intensity, individual field components, or squared field component distributions can be exported into various formats (data formats: .mat, .h5 (HDF5), .txt (ASCII); image formats: .fig, .ai, .bmp, .emf, .eps, .jpg, .pcx, .pdf, .png, .tif).
caption: PSF Lab on Windows 7
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