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Confocal optics

(Science: microscopy) a (microscope) optical system in which the condenser and objective lenses both focus onto one single point in the specimen. Generally, the image of a pinhole source is focused onto a point in the specimen, and that point is focused by the objective lens onto a point detector or through a mask with a pinhole aperture. With confocal optics, the Abbe limit of resolution can be exceeded since only a limited region of the specimen is viewed at any onetime.