Figure 1.

Polarized TIRFM. A p- or s-polarized laser beam is coupled through a quartz prism to a quartz slide and totally reflected at the quartz/water interface. The quartz slide supports an acceptor SNARE complex containing planar membrane. Synaptobrevin containing fluorescently labeled vesicles can be visualized as soon as they get into the proximity of the supported bilayer within the exponentially decaying evanescent field. The fluorescence is collected by a water immersion objective of an inverted microscope from underneath. System components are not drawn to scale.