Three-Dimensional Digital Confocal Raman Microscopy

We describe an iterative image restoration technique which functions as digital confocal microscopy for Raman images. We deconvolute the lateral and axial components of the microscope point spread function from a series of optical sections, to generate a stack of well-resolved Raman images which describe the three-dimensional topology of a sample. The technique provides an alternative to confocal microscopy for three-dimensional microscopic Raman imaging.