High-resolution spectrally selective scanning microscopy of a sample

A microscope for high-resolution spectrally selective scanning microscopy, comprising

• a sample space for receiving a sample which is excitable to emit fluorescent radiation,
• an optical unit which comprises a resolution limit and a focal plane, located in the sample space,
• an illumination device, which comprises an entrance for receiving illumination radiation and illuminates, via the optical unit, the sample space with illumination radiation such that the optical unit focuses illumination radiation to a point in the focal plane to form an illumination spot, which is diffraction-limited in at least one spatial direction and has, a minimum extent in this spatial direction,
• an imaging device for diffraction-limited imaging of fluorescent radiation coming from the illumination spot in the focal plane through the optical unit and into a diffraction image on a spatially resolving detector which is located in an image plane that is conjugate to the focal plane,
• wherein the surface detector has a plurality of adjacent location channels which define a spatial resolution at which the structure of the diffraction image of the fluorescent radiation coming from the illumination spot is resolved,
• wherein the spatial resolution resolves a structure of the diffraction image,
• wherein exactly one first of the location channels guides the fluorescent radiation onto a spectrometer spectral evaluation, and
• wherein each remaining location channel guides the fluorescent radiation onto an individual detector element, which does not perform spectral evaluation and captures the fluorescent radiation only with respect to the intensity in the assigned remaining location channel,
• a scanning device for displacing the point into different scanning positions at an increment size of less than half the minimum extent of the illumination spot, and
• an evaluation device for reading the detector, for evaluating the diffraction structure of the diffraction image from individual image data of the surface detector and from the scanning position is assigned to said individual image data, and for producing an image of the sample that has a resolution that is increased to above the resolution limit.