total internal reflection fluorescence microscope

Daniel Axelrod invented the first total internal reflection fluorescence microscope in 1981.

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRF)

A Total internal reflection fluorescence microscope uses the evanescent wave produced by total internal reflection to excite fluorophores close to a surface.

A total internal reflection fluorescence microscope is a type of microscope with which a thin region of a specimen, usually less than 200 nm, can be observed.

In microscopy, the development and refinement of the confocal microscope, the fluorescence microscope, and the total internal reflection fluorescence microscope all belong to the field of biophotonics.

These microscopes are widely used in biology and are the basis for more advanced microscope designs, such as the confocal microscope and the total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRF).

Those in which the energy associated with the wave is used to excite some other phenomenon within the region of space where the original traveling wave becomes evanescent (for example, as in the total internal reflection fluorescence microscope)

Electromagnetic evanescent waves have been used to exert optical radiation pressure on small particles to trap them for experimentation, or to cool them to very low temperatures, and to illuminate very small objects such as biological cells for microscopy (as in the total internal reflection fluorescence microscope).