why no plastic dish for confocal? - (Apr/20/2011 )

Hello everyone.
I can access a Leica SP5 confocal microscope.
i have a question.
i know most of the time we are using glass slide and glass coverslip.
the thing is i don't know the reason why we can't use plastic dish for confocal microscope?

i thought laser from confocal microscope comes in and out in objectives, and suppose i'm using a coverglass. then fluorescence from the labelling of the cells should still be captured?

can anyone tell me why we can't use polystyrene dish for confocal microscope?


thank you

Most of the times it is either too thick or has a wrong refraction index.

They are also very uneven, so at high magnifications you will get odd diffraction patterns from the changes in the surface.