Confocal microscope

Abstract

A confocal microscope includes an illumination optical system configured to uniformly illuminate at least part of a first confocal stop with a light beam from a light source, a first collection optical system configured to collect a light beam passing through the first confocal stop onto a specimen, a second collection optical system configured to collect a light beam from the specimen onto a second confocal stop, a detection unit configured to detect a light beam passing through the second confocal stop, and a light intensity control member provided to at least one of the first collection optical system and the second collection optical system and having a transmittance of a first region including an optical axis that is lower than a transmittance of a second region around the first region.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.