also: きょうしょうてんレーザーそうさがたけんびきょう
confocal laser scanning microscope
Technical term for a type of optical microscope that uses a laser and a spatial pinhole to eliminate out-of-focus light, producing high-resolution images, especially in biology.
We observed the distribution of fluorescent proteins inside the cell using a confocal laser scanning microscope.
A fluorescence microscope uses fluorescence to generate an image, but does not necessarily have the confocal pinhole that eliminates out-of-focus light. 共焦点レーザー走査型顕微鏡 is a specific type of fluorescence microscope with confocal optics.
An electron microscope uses a beam of electrons instead of light, achieving much higher resolution but requiring vacuum and special sample preparation. 共焦点レーザー走査型顕微鏡 works with living samples and visible light.
Standard spelling with the long-vowel mark in レーザー, which is the more common representation in modern technical writing.
Variant without the long-vowel mark in レーザ; seen in some technical contexts but less common than レーザー.
Compound of 共焦点 (confocal), レーザー (laser), 走査型 (scanning type), and 顕微鏡 (microscope). The term is a direct translation of the English 'confocal laser scanning microscope'.