Some variations of FCS are only applicable to serial scanning laser microscopes.

This laser microscope approaches the accuracy and resolution of an SEM at a lower cost and without destroying the target.

Scanning laser microscope (SLM)

Scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California say they are nearing the goal of bringing X-ray laser microscopes within the reach of relatively small research laboratories.

Both institutions, which receive money from the Department of Energy, predict that X-ray laser microscopes will soon be small enough to place on laboratory tables and may cost no more than $500,000 each, a gigantic reduction in the scale and cost of the handful of prototypes that now exist.

'New Era of Discovery' "We believe that when they become available to laboratories, X-ray laser microscopes will open a new era of discovery for biologists," said Dr. Szymon Suckewer, director of the X-ray laser program at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.