US 10,095,018 B2 · Structured illumination optical system and structured illumination microscope device

Abstract

An illumination optical system includes: a beam splitter located near a conjugate position of a specimen and configured to split beams from a light source into a plurality of groups of beams having different splitting directions around an optical axis; a beam selector configured to select and transmit one group of beams from the plurality of groups of beams and that is rotatable with respect to the optical axis; and a ½ wavelength plate located near the beam selector and rotatable about the optical axis. The rotation angles of the ½ wavelength plate and of the beam selector about the optical axis are respectively set so that the polarization direction of the beam which has passed through the ½ wavelength plate is perpendicular to the splitting direction of the one group of beams that has been selected by the beam selector and split by the beam splitter.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A structured illumination optical system comprising:

a beam splitter that splits a beam from a light source into a plurality of beams;
a ½ wavelength plate;
and
an objective lens that generates an interference fringe on a specimen using at least two of the beams split by the beam splitter,
wherein
a direction of the interference fringe formed on the specimen is changed, and
a fast axis of the ½ wavelength plate is set to a direction displaced from a polarization direction of a beam that enters into the ½ wavelength plate by an angle θ/2, where θ is a difference in polarization direction between (i) the polarization direction of the beam that enters into the ½ wavelength plate and (ii) a polarization direction of a beam that is emitted from the ½ wavelength plate, the polarization direction of the emitted beam being determined based on the direction of the interference fringe.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Structured illumination optical system and structured illumination microscope device

Life of this patent

Structured illumination optical system and structured illumination microscope device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15