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The illumination source in CLSM is due to one or several lasers (Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation; More about lasers ...). Lasers have the characteristics that they emit strong and monochromatic light that can be focused to a point-shaped light source, which is favorable for the resolution. In some system the laser beam is pivotted by means of rotating mirrors in order to perform a xy-scan pattern over the object. Synchronously the reflection, transmission or fluorescence signal is collected point-by-point and reconstructed into a xy image. In order to achieve the scan function some microscopes utilize a Nipkow disk instead of mirrors, while others bear a stage able to perform accurate and rapid translations (more about scanning methods ...). CLSM offers possibilities to sensitively detect and enhance weak emission signals, which would be barely distinguished with a normal microscope, so that the final result is a bright and contrasted image displayed on a computer monitor (this is accomplished in particular thanks by the use of photomultipliers tubes = PMTs and charge-coupled device = CCD cameras, in conjunction with digital image enhancement).
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